Guest guest Posted November 2, 2000 Report Share Posted November 2, 2000 At 09:43 AM 11/2/00 -0400, you wrote: >Please take my name and email off your list. There has been a mistake. I >have no interest in shydrager disease. I am getting thousands of these >emails daily. Please forward this email to otherpeople, so that they >won't email me. Thank you. Scherer >--- [pdnews] Researchers Find Key Nerve Injury Compound >Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 00:38:33 -0500 > >Reply-To: Judith s >Organization: @Home Network >To: " Parkinson's Disease News " > >This message has been sent to you by the PDNEWS service. >---------------------------------------------------------------- > >Researchers Find Key Nerve Injury Compound > By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent > >WASHINGTON, November 1, 2000 (Reuters) - Researchers said on Wednesday >they had identified a molecule that is key to helping injured nerve >cells regenerate, and said it might be used to develop new treatments >for spinal cord injuries, brain diseases and stroke damage. > >The molecule, called inosine, acts as a kind of master switch to turn on >a number of genes involved in the growth of nerve cells, the team at >Boston's Children's Hospital and Harvard University reports. > > " Inosine switches on a whole constellation of genes, " Dr. Larry >Benowitz, who led the research, said in a telephone interview. > >Inosine is made and licensed by Boston Life Sciences Inc. (BLSI), a tiny >biotechnology firm working to develop protein-based treatments for a >number of conditions. It is based on a naturally occurring compound >called a nucleoside -- similar to the compounds that make up DNA. > >Last year, Benowitz's team reported that inosine could cause nerve cells >in rats to sprout new axons -- the tendrils that nerve cells reach out >to one another with. > >They plan to report at a Society of Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans >later this month that when those newly grown axons met one another, they >formed synapses -- the key connections that nerve cells use to send >messages to one another. > >And in another unpublished study, Benowitz said his team found that >inosine can cause severed nerves to regenerate axons in rats. " It juices >them up nicely, " he said, but adding that the experiment will have to be >repeated before he can be sure it really works the way he thinks it >does. > >Benowitz said his team found in the latest experiment, published in the >Journal of Neuroscience, that inosine passes through the nerve cell's >membrane and activates an enzyme that in turn controls the cell's >molecular program for axon growth. > > " We think it is directly targeting and activating a protein kinase, an >enzyme, inside the cell, that is the linchpin of the signaling pathway >that activates growth, " Benowitz said. > >But, he added, " While inosine stimulates nerve growth very nicely, it >doesn't do it as well as another molecule we have found -- AF-1. " AF-1 >is short for axogenic factor and Benowitz's lab is working to get enough >to experiment with. > > " I have been banging my head on the wall trying to get enough of this >stuff to purify,'' he said. " I don't think inosine alone is enough to >activate everything optimally. There must be other positive and negative >controls on that pathway. " > >Boston Life Sciences is working with other researchers to develop >inosine for use in stroke victims, who lose brain cells to damage caused >by blood clots. Benowitz says it is not clear whether inosine gets brain >cells to grow new connections or protects them from dying. > >When a brain cell dies, it often sends out chemical signals that cause >surrounding, healthy brain cells to die. It is not known why but finding >a way to shut off this mechanism could help prevent damage from stroke >and brain injury, as well as the progression of PARKINSON'S and >Alzheimer's. > > " We hope to have Inosine in the clinic sometime next year for the >treatment of stroke and other CNS (central nervous system) disorders, " >Dr. Marc Lanser, chief scientific officer for BLSI, said in a statement. > >Benowitz, who gets consulting fees and research grants from BLSI, is >also funded by the National Institutes of Health, a foundation set up by >paralyzed actor Reeve, and other groups. > Copyright © 2000 Yahoo! Inc., and Reuters Limited. > > >-- >Judith s, London, Ontario, Canada >judithr@... > Today’s Research... > Tomorrow’s Cure > >---------------------------------------------------------------- >You are currently subscribed to pdnews as: [pbower@...] >To unsubscribe, forward this message to >leave-pdnews-12911L@... >To contact the list administrator email owner-pdnews@... >If this message has been forwarded to you, you can subscribe to PDNEWS >yourself by sending an email to join-pdnews@... > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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