Scientists find drugs to help repair damaged neurons

October 13, 2016 / Bio Valley BIOON / -- Because damaged nerve fibers are not regenerative, spinal injuries can cause paralysis and other permanent disabilities. Now scientists from Germany have successfully lifted the role of a "brake" molecule that blocks the regeneration of nerve fibers. They treated mice with a drug that acts on growth inhibition, Pregabalin, to achieve a compromised neural junction remodeling. The relevant research results were published in the international academic journal Neuron.

Neuronal cells connect to each other to form a network throughout the body. In this way, nerve signals can be transmitted from the head to the toes. This damage to the neural signal transmission network can have serious consequences. Especially when the brain or the spine is damaged, the axons in the central nervous system can not be regenerated.

The damaged neural signal network will only recover after the affected cells form a new connection, and in fact the axon growth occurs in the early stages of embryonic development, and this growth ability disappears completely into adulthood. "We started by proposing that once a neuron is connected to other neurons, it down-regulates the growth-related gene expression program, ensuring that it does not go beyond the mark boundary, which means that there is a trigger once the neurons are connected to each other. 'Brake mechanism'," said researcher Dr. Andrea Tedeschi.

Researchers began to look for genes that regulate neuronal growth in mice and cultured cells. They used bioinformatics techniques to analyze gene expression data and finally found a candidate gene, Cacna2d2, whose expression product plays an important role in synapse formation and function. It has been confirmed by further experiments that Cacna2d2 can indeed affect axon growth and regeneration of nerve fibers.

The protein encoded by Cacna2d2 is involved in the formation of ion channel complexes, which can anchor ion channels on the cell membrane to help regulate the flow of calcium ions. Intracellular calcium levels affect cellular processes such as neurotransmitter release, so these ion channels are important for communication between neurons.

In further experiments, the researchers used a drug called Pregalabalin (PGB) that binds to the anchoring molecules of calcium channels, which they use to treat spinally injured mice and find this treatment. Will cause the growth of new nerve connections.

This study shows that synapse formation is a powerful switch that limits axonal growth. The drug PGB can alter the restriction of synapses. In fact, PGB has been used in the clinical treatment of some spinal diseases. Researchers say that PGB may play a role in promoting nerve fiber growth, and the research will lead the development of new treatments in the long run.