{"id":2497,"date":"2014-08-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vermont.salk.edu\/news-release\/salk-scientists-uncover-new-clues-to-repairing-an-injured-spinal-cord\/"},"modified":"2014-08-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T07:00:00","slug":"salk-scientists-uncover-new-clues-to-repairing-an-injured-spinal-cord","status":"publish","type":"disclosure","link":"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/es\/news-release\/salk-scientists-uncover-new-clues-to-repairing-an-injured-spinal-cord\/","title":{"rendered":"Cient\u00edficos del Instituto Salk descubren nuevas pistas para reparar una m\u00e9dula espinal lesionada"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nLA JOLLA\u2014Frogs, dogs, whales, snails can all do it, but humans and primates can’t. Regrow nerves after an injury, that is\u2014while many animals have this ability, humans don’t. But new research from the Salk Institute suggests that a small molecule may be able to convince damaged nerves to grow and effectively rewire circuits. Such a feat could eventually lead to therapies for the thousands of Americans with severe spinal cord injuries and paralysis.\n<\/p>\n

\n“This research implies that we might be able to mimic neuronal repair processes that occur naturally in lower animals, which would be very exciting,” says the study’s senior author and Salk professor Kuo-Fen Lee<\/a>. The results were published today in PLOS Biology<\/a><\/em>.\n<\/p>\n

\nFor a damaged nerve to regain function, its long, signal-transmitting extensions known as axons need to grow and establish new connections to other cells.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The presence of p45 (green staining) and p75 (red staining) indicates that motor neurons increase both p45 and p75 expression after sciatic nerve injury in an animal.<\/p>\n

Haga clic aqu\u00ed<\/a> para obtener una imagen en alta resoluci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

\nImagen: Cortes\u00eda del Instituto Salk de Estudios Biol\u00f3gicos\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nIn a study published last summer in PLOS ONE<\/em><\/a>, Lee and his colleagues found that the protein p45 promotes nerve regeneration by preventing the axon sheath (known as myelin) from inhibiting regrowth. However, humans, primates and some other more advanced vertebrates don’t have p45. Instead, the researchers discovered a different protein, p75, that binds to the axon’s myelin when nerve damage occurs in these animals. Instead of promoting nerve regeneration, p75 actually halts growth in damaged nerves.\n<\/p>\n

\n“We don’t know why this nerve regeneration doesn’t occur in humans. We can speculate that the brain has so many neural connections that this regeneration is not absolutely necessary,” Lee says.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn the study published today, the scientists looked at how two p75 proteins bind together and form a pair that latches onto the inhibitors released from damaged myelin.\n<\/p>\n

\nBy studying the configurations of the proteins in solutions using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology, the researchers found that the growth-promoting p45 could disrupt the p75 pairing.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\nKuo-Fen Lee, Professor in Salk’s Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology<\/p>\n

Haga clic aqu\u00ed<\/a> para obtener una imagen en alta resoluci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

\nImagen: Cortes\u00eda del Instituto Salk de Estudios Biol\u00f3gicos\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n“For reasons that are not understood, when p45 comes in, it breaks the pair apart,” says Lee, holder of the C\u00e1tedra Helen McLoraine en Neurobiolog\u00eda Molecular<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhat’s more, the p45 protein was able to bind to the specific region in the p75 protein that is critical for the formation of the p75 pair, thus decreasing the amount of p75 pairs that bond to inhibitors release from myelin. With less p75 pairs available to bond to inhibitor signals, axons were able to regrow.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe findings suggest that an agent\u2014either p45 or another disrupting molecule\u2014that can effectively break the p75 pair could offer a possible therapy for spinal cord damage.\n<\/p>\n

\nOne method of therapy could be to introduce more p45 protein to injured neurons, but a smarter tactic might be to introduce a small molecule that jams the link between the two p75 proteins, Lee says. “Such an agent could possibly get through the blood-brain barrier and to the site of spinal cord injuries,” he says.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe next step will be to see if introducing p45 helps regenerate damaged human nerves. “That is what we hope to do in the future,” Lee says.\n<\/p>\n

\nCollaborating with Lee on this work were Tsung-Chang Sung, Zhijiang Chen and Jiqing Xu, from the Salk Institute; Mar\u00e7al Vilar, Irmina Garcia-Carpio and Eva M. Fernandez, from the Neurodegeneration Unit, UFIEC-ISCIII, in Madrid, Spain; and Rolan Reik from the Laboratory for Physical Chemistry, ETH Z\u00fcrich, in Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis research was supported by grants from the Institutos Nacionales de Salud<\/a>, Muscular Dystrophy Association<\/a> y Clayton Foundation<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nAcerca del Instituto Salk de Estudios Biol\u00f3gicos:<\/strong>
\nEl Instituto Salk de Estudios Biol\u00f3gicos es una de las instituciones de investigaci\u00f3n b\u00e1sica m\u00e1s destacadas del mundo, donde un cuerpo docente de prestigio internacional investiga cuestiones fundamentales de las ciencias de la vida en un entorno \u00fanico, colaborativo y creativo. Centrados tanto en el descubrimiento como en la formaci\u00f3n de las futuras generaciones de investigadores, los cient\u00edficos del Salk realizan contribuciones revolucionarias a nuestra comprensi\u00f3n del c\u00e1ncer, el envejecimiento, el Alzheimer, la diabetes y las enfermedades infecciosas mediante el estudio de la neurociencia, la gen\u00e9tica, la biolog\u00eda celular y vegetal, y otras disciplinas relacionadas.\n<\/p>\n

\nFaculty achievements have been recognized with numerous honors, including Nobel Prizes and memberships in the National Academy of Sciences. Founded in 1960 by polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk, MD, the Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","faculty":[95],"disease-research":[146,124,160],"class_list":["post-2497","disclosure","type-disclosure","status-publish","hentry","faculty-kuo-fen-lee","disease-research-aging-and-regenerative-medicine","disease-research-neuroscience-and-neurological-disorders","disease-research-spinal-cord-injury"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSalk scientists uncover new clues to repairing an injured spinal cord - Salk Institute for Biological Studies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/es\/news-release\/salk-scientists-uncover-new-clues-to-repairing-an-injured-spinal-cord\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Salk scientists uncover new clues to repairing an injured spinal cord - Salk Institute for Biological Studies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LA JOLLA\u2014Frogs, dogs, whales, snails can all do it, but humans and primates can’t. 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