Health & Medicine - Posted by Charles Casey-UC Davis on Friday, June 17, 2011 14:26 - 4 Comments 
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(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Molecule may revive injured nerve cells
Scientists have discovered that a factor in the embryonic development of brain cells could play an powerful role in healing for patients with demyleinating diseases and injuries like cerebral palsy, stroke, and multiple sclerosis. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
UC DAVIS (US) — Scientists have discovered a target for the development of drugs and stem cell therapies that could aid in the recovery of patients with multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and stroke.
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The study, conducted on mice and published online in the journal Scientific Research, focused on cells in the brain called oligodendrocytes, which surround nerve fibers and provide them with a protective myelin sheath.
Myelin increases the speed at which nerve impulses propagate, similar to the role of insulation around an electric wire, and is essential for the proper functioning of the nervous system.
“We have discovered that enhancing a factor important in early brain development could play a powerful role in healing,” says Wenbin Deng, assistant professor of cell biology and human anatomy at the University of California, Davis.
“This information can be very important for harnessing the regenerative capacity of the brain through drugs or stem cell therapy.”
Researchers studied a factor called Zfp488 that has been found only in oligodendrocytes. Although researchers knew it is required for oligodendrocytes to mature during embryonic development, they were surprised to find it also plays a role in adult brain cells.
For the study, investigators induced demyelination in mice by feeding them a diet containing cuprizone, a chemical that specifically damages mature oligodendrocytes.
After two weeks, one group of mice was injected with a retrovirus that contained the genetic code for Zfp488, causing these mice to express this factor in their cells. After three more weeks on the diet, these mice developed new oligodendrocytes from precursor cells in much greater numbers than occurred in control mice, which were also on the cuprizone diet but were not provided with Zfp488.
The researchers found not only oligodendrocyte recovery, but important differences in motor function between the two groups.
Three days after the diet was stopped, mice provided with Zfp488 performed significantly better on a test of running time than did the controls, and performed as well as mice that never received the demyelinating diet.
This is especially important, because people with a demyelinating disease have poor motor control as a major symptom.
“The fact that Zfp488 not only induced remyelination but also led to restoration of function is very exciting,” Deng says.
“This is a step toward our most important goal of finding a therapy for functional recovery for patients with a demyelinating disorder or injury.”
The study findings could lead to identifying a drug that specifically enhances the activity of Zfp488. Another potential avenue of therapy could be to implant precursor cells of oligodendrocytes to promote regeneration.
“Until this study, we had no clear idea of a target to promote remyelination in demyelinating diseases and injuries,” says co-author David E. Pleasure, professor of neurology and pediatrics. “This knowledge opens up exciting new avenues of research.”
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4 Comments
Al G
this is rather exciting! i wonder if Zfp488 pharmacological interventions could be developed to promote remyelination and restore function after injury or disease.
Diane
My husband of 50 years recently died of a degenerative brain disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, that is quite rare. Only about 4,000 Americans have this disease. Maybe this research could eventually help in this disease as well. I hope so.
Oligodendrocytes have an ectodermal origin. They are large cells with few branches and soma. These ramifications surrounding the axons and held in place also can be rolled back on themselves forming myelin sheaths that act as electrical insulators this being a composite membrane of oligodendrocytes formed by lipids and proteins that support the branches. These are equipped with a cytoskeleton composed of microtubules.
Proteins are made up of amino-acid chain that will allow proper repair of damaged cells and replacing lost cells, and the best protein containing all amino acids, therefore, the essential and nonessential, is the protein soy.
Poor maternal nutrition and later in childhood and youth causes diseases arise centrally by deficiencies or lack of complete protein to maintain a stable cell membrane (CNS) central nervous system.
This could also be applied to ALS too. The rate of change in medicine is astounding. I chalk it up to the hybridization of computers and medicine. The computers let us make sense of imaging technologies, and they also let us gather huge reams of data and turn them into useful information.