Scientists Identify Gene Required for Nerve Regeneration

Great read. Hopefully this could actually be applied to humans.

I wonder if those are the actual scissors they used in the experiment.

Awesome. I have a 6 inch scar on my chest (ugly one) and no sensation in almost my entire chest. Nice find, I'll keep tabs on this one.

Originally posted by Starwise
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

Unfortunately, MS is outside the scope of this research entirely. Please read this, as you seem to have missed it. Perhaps somewhere down the line it will prompt new research into axon regeneration in the CNS, however it still will not apply to MS, as MS is all about myelin degradation.

Originally posted by Diggz
Great read. Hopefully this could actually be applied to humans.

I wonder if those are the actual scissors they used in the experiment.

Wouldn't that be something. But no, according to the paper, they used a UV laser.

It seems to be that the mechanism behind what they investigated is analogous to that in humans. They mention hereditary spastic paraplegia in their paper. It has been found that the majority of patients who have this, have a deleterious mutation the human-equivalent spastin gene, SP4. Interestingly, the disease is also dominant, which means that all you need to inherit the disease is a single copy of SP4 (and not two as you would if it were recessive), which confirms much of what they learned in their investigation of fruit flies. Whether this leads to anything viable for HSP is another story, however. They say in the paper:

Mutations in SPG4, the gene that encodes spastin in humans, are the most common cause of HSP, but adult onset of degeneration is difficult to explain based on studies of spastin function. Most phenotypes that have been identified in model organisms or cultured neurons with reduced levels of spastin are developmental. For example, knockdown of spastin in zebrafish embryos leads to axon outgrowth defects (Wood et al., 2006), knockdown in mammalian cultured neurons leads to axon branching defects (Yu et al., 2008), and Drosophila mutants have synaptic defects at the neuromuscular junction (Sherwood et al., 2004; Trotta et al., 2004) and dendrite branching defects (Jinushi-Nakao et al., 2007). However, in human disease, developmental defects do not seem to be present in many cases. Instead, disease onset occurs after several asymptomatic decades of life.

It would be interesting to see if they can use this research to develop a way to help promote the regeneration of nerves after injury, but I suspect this is a long way out as there is still a lot that they don't understand and developing a therapy from this poses a number of problems in itself.

Originally posted by Wolfenz
reply to post by ErroneousDylan

 

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

Dont think it would do him much good seeing as he is dead....

I can't believe this thread doesn't have 100 flags.

Seriously folks this is huge news.

Starred and flagged.

I wonder if this would make a difference for MS patients?

Originally posted by The X
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!!.

I have severe MS. Secondary progressive to be more specific. If this will help to reattach the nerves destroyed or damaged, than please put me in line for the trials. It took me 3+ hours to be able to walk today. I am soooo tired of this crud!

Exciting breakthrough, but I fear the potential military applications (not ones that should benefit vets of course) will prevent this from being more openly developed if it proves to be a 'cyberware' gateway.

Originally posted by Propulsion

Originally posted by The X
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!!.

I have severe MS. Secondary progressive to be more specific. If this will help to reattach the nerves destroyed or damaged, than please put me in line for the trials. It took me 3+ hours to be able to walk today. I am soooo tired of this crud!

Again, this is not related to MS. Please read the posts I've written that describe the study in a bit more detail.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Great news! Too late for me, I'm 18 years post C45 quadriplegic presently 53 years old. What most people don't understand is the damage that is done to the body by removing the ability to move. Within a few years most of the calcium in my bones leached out simply by not bearing weight. It's just a natural process the body goes through. The results being bones to brittle to bear weight.

After two decades of bladder infections progressively getting worse my kidneys have taken a beating.

After 10 years of pressure sores my body has forgotten how to heal. My ligaments have contracted and shrunk.

And lastly there's a toll taken on a person just from the seclusion alone. Close friends choose to shut you out because of their own ability not to bear to see you in such condition. For me that's been the worst. I'm still the same person I was before the injury, happy-go-lucky and upbeat, but you can't help but miss your friends.

The care and maintenance someone like myself needs is beyond societies ability to deliver. So one makes the best of it. But this could be great for people five years down the road, and that makes me happy.

Wow, this is really very impressive, and has some pretty far reaching implications. Vast numbers of wheelchair bound persons in the world have nerve damage, rather than being disposssessed of one or two limbs, and for them, this breakthrough could lead to replacement of damaged sections of nerve pathways. I for one see this research as some of the most important in genetic medicine today.

Look how much crap people in wheelchairs, people with severe disabilities, the inability to move themselves around, or even speak in some cases, have to put up with. Not only do these people have to suffer the injury that has been done them, by either fate or genetics or both, but they are harrassed by the government, who means test them on a constant basis.

I think this research could easily mean improvements in the treatment that is available for nervous system damage, and by extention the quality of life of those who are suffering either a traumatic or hereditary issues which effect the nerves. This could be a fantastic change in the making.

Thanks for sharing*
Its only a matter of time once we realize our true potential calling to us...
through our cells~

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mayallsoulsbefree∞