Scientists Identify Gene Required for Nerve Regeneration

Scientists Identify Gene Required for Nerve Regeneration

www.sci-news.com

The team has found that a mutation in a single gene can entirely shut down the process by which axons – the parts of the nerve cell that are responsible for sending signals to other cells – regrow themselves after being cut or damaged.

“We are hopeful that this discovery will open the door to new research related to spinal-cord and other neurological disorders in humans,” said Prof Rolls, who co-authored a paper published online in the journal Cell Reports.

(visit the link for the full news article)

How strong this is as a break through, I'm not sure, but it is definitely a foot in the door of the right direction. The article goes on to say that they are preparing to test other disease genes for their interaction with nerve-cell regeneration.

It may not be practical at the moment, but I can imagine a medical world where our genes are corrected to relieve ourselves of nerve damage, which would be fantastic.

www.sci-news.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

ZOMBIES!
2nd

Mod Note: Adding "2nd line" doesn't make it any less of a 1-liner.

Interesting find. I wonder if they will be able to apply this knowledge to humans without side effects.

Nice! I'll have to share this article with a few people I know who are biology majors. This research would be helpful towards spinal cord problems, I assume. Great read.

Originally posted by doesntmakesense
ZOMBIES!
2nd

Uninstall Operating System!
2nd

Mod Note: Adding "2nd" doesn't make it any less of a 1-liner.

I am very interested in this S&F. I wonder how far off they are from this being viable? For me this would be miraculous I was injured in the military and lost all sense of touch on portions of my body from nerve damage done by the lacerations. I never even thought there could be a chance again until now that one day I could regain those senses.

Originally posted by Grimpachi
I am very interested in this S&F. I wonder how far off they are from this being viable? For me this would be miraculous I was injured in the military and lost all sense of touch on portions of my body from nerve damage done by the lacerations. I never even thought there could be a chance again until now that one day I could regain those senses.

edit on 5-11-2012 by Grimpachi because: refrase

Stay hopeful, buddy. I'm sorry you were injured.

This article seemed more focused on gene mutations that have been inherited. However, it does discuss that they are already planning to experiment with more disease genes. Regardless, the door to medical nerve-cell regeneration has been opened.

reply to post by ErroneousDylan


Thanks. All things considered I am just thankful to still be alive.

I know it is in its infant stages of research but as you said the door is opened and everything has a beginning point. I will keep my eyes on this.

If you guys just read the comments on the article, they would clarify that this will lead to treatment for those with nerve damage from injury.

"Neuroscience, is a completely different ballgame..."

Wow, the implications of it could be huge in time.

Kids and infants have the ability to recover from brain injuries far more significantly than adults, since their neurons keep on recreating themselves and modified to new states, which then the neurons can be re-linked and it won't damage the transmission between them and the nervous system on the long term. We adults are way more prone to brain damage than children because we lose the ability to readjust and recreate new neurons and interconnections, instead we get old and neurons are passing away in time and links between them can be forever broken.

I'm not a neurologist, but I believe this could be considered as a scientific breakthrough, with the potential to heal and mostly prevent quite a few neurological defects which impacts many people's lives, especially the elders.

Thanks for the share OP, S&F

I just gave this news to my girlfriend who has MS, she was very excited about it, but, i guess it wil be 5 - 10 years before a viable gene therapy treatment is going to be available.
Nevertheless, there are millions of people who are blighted by such disease who will benefit from this research, if not now, in the future generations.
Professor rolls, well done chap, thank you!!.

Great News!!!!
My family have a hereditary CMT which effects the peripheral nerves, It would be absolutely wonderful to know it wouldn't be passed to future generations.

This is incredible !

Now to see how this will change the lives of those afflicted by degenerative brain disease, however I can see this potential benefit to this as a science , however the flip side is , that more people are going to live longer as a result.

This makes me think of masamune shirows ghost in the shell , where a japan which already has a high degree of healthy living and those living for longer , this would increase the number of citizens world wide who are still alive without brain diseases where they are then still able to work and contribute , but at the same time increasing the population!

It has its potential impacts on a larger scale rather than just the individual !

Originally posted by Pepeluacho
If you guys just read the comments on the article, they would clarify that this will lead to treatment for those with nerve damage from injury.

"Neuroscience, is a completely different ballgame..."

I wanted to quote this, as it seems that a lot of people in this thread are a bit confused about what this research is actually saying.

MS is a disease that results of the progressive degeneration of the insulation (called myelin) that surrounds the axons of most of the neurons in our body. It is a disease of the central nervous system (CNS) and not the peripheral nervous system (PNS), which is what this research was focused on. As well, regeneration of the myelin sheath I don't think is the same thing as regeneration of the axons. My understanding is that they can occur as two separate processes.

Along a similar vein and in response to a few other comments, axonal regeneration is *not* the same as regeneration of an entire neuron.

This is a cartoon image of a neuron (found here):



Axons are elongated structures that radiate out from the cell body and carry electrical signals, usually in the form of action potential, throughout the body. Damage to these presents obvious problems, since it curbs propagation of nerve impulses to the intended target. The result of this is seen in a number of diseases as well as in some physical injuries in which feeling and motor control is lost. Regeneration of axons is actually quite common in a lot of species - typically invertebrates and lower-order vertebrates - but it's much more restricted in our central nervous system (and in mammals in general) for reasons that are slowly becoming understood.

What this paper has done is demonstrate that there may be some truth to mechanisms for the regeneration of axons put forward by other research.They achieved this by performing what are called knockdown experiments in fruit fly larvae, which essentially means they made one or both (or neither, in the case of the control group) copies of the gene encoding the spastin protein non-functional. Following this, they severed peripheral axons (i.e. not those in the central nervous system), which are more susceptible to injury, and observed the severed axons at various stages.

The results were quite clear: regenerative growth (both proximal and distil) is inhibited both by over expression of the spastin gene and by the loss of even a single copy of the gene. This is unlike normal axonal outgrowth, which is unaffected by the lack of the spastin gene.

Again, this research, while promising in its own right, will not help sufferers of MS or other types of brain damage like Alzheimer or Parkinson's. It does shed some light on a disease called hereditary spastic paraplegia (mentioned in the article linked int he OP), for which the most common cause is mutations in the gene encoding spastin for humans. It may also help with a number of other things involving nerve injury.

Edit: for those interested, the OP's article does provide a link to the actual paper, which is free to download. It's a bit heavy on the jargon, but worth a read if you're up for it:

Normal Spastin Gene Dosage Is Specifically Required for Axon Regeneration

I once played a sci-fi rpg where this technology was used to transplant the brain and a good portion of the spinal cord from a 40 + aged person into their lab grown 20 year old (brain-removed) clone...

It was how the wealthy lived extended life spans...

Scary that it could become a reality...

reply to post by doesntmakesense


Exactly. A viral tool used to either incapacitate the nervous system and musculatory function or increase regenerative abilities could get out of hand and infect humans with obvious results - regenerative abilities enable the retaining of motor functions while the virus still attacks the tissues, rendering them officially useless.

The most basic part of the brain would still function due to the regenerative, but enough would decay to reduce us to the most animalistic nature. This is me being creative (as a writer, I can create almost any possibility give a few details and make it into a good story ) but I could see it happening.

Especially being fully aware of the priority the military is given in having a covert look at emerging technologies.

reply to post by ErroneousDylan


Wow Interesting

Now if Only Superman AKA Christopher Reaves Could see this Now ...

A I Remeber a Movie Called

a Chuck Norris Movie that

that Showed Somthing like a Rapid Nerve cell Regeneration

Silent Rage
www.imdb.com...

So will this Become a Reaility

A true Zombie Formula ....

reply to post by ErroneousDylan


I wonder if this can be applied to Bell's Palsy sufferers. Which is a idiopathic nerve damage to the life side(mostly) of your face.

I was affected by this and i recovered about 88%. One of my eyebrows are not fully movable and one corner of my mouth does not do full curve when i smile, but it s not much noticeable to others, but i can :/


I too looking forward to this being used in treatment.

reply to post by ErroneousDylan


S&F!!!!

WHAT A FIND!! I HOPE ITS REAL!!!!!!!!!
I was just diagnosed with MS and this could lead to a real cure!

*Happy Dancing* Well not literally, but I am in my mind