Scientists have identified a gene whose function is to create a protein that prevents the brain and spinal cord from regenerating cells. This protein effectively prevents auto repair of wounds to those organs. The implications of this discovery may lead to new treatments that will improve the chances of recovery for more than a quarter of a million people.
The gene, named "nogo" because of its inhibiting effect, causes the production of a protein that inhibits nerve-cell regeneration in damaged or cut cells in the central nervous system (CNS). Experiments in rodents demonstrated that when the protein itself is effectively blocked, there *is* regeneration of the spinal cord.
This discovery, was made by a team led by Professor doctor Martin Schwab of the Brain Research Institute at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His team has been working on "nogo" for 15 years, and has created an antibody that blocks the "nogo" created protein.
Growth and regeneration in the central nervous system are influenced by many different entities that can be either growth promoting or inhibiting. The Schwab group discovered an important nerve growth inhibiting entity (a myelin protein). This protein has now been purified and a clone developed. It belongs to a new family of membrane proteins (the nogo family).
From this, a monoclonal antibody has been developed. Its in vivo application after spinal cord or brain damage in rodents has led to outgrowth and regeneration of injured nerve fibers, and to a high degree of functional recovery. It was also noted that nerve fiber bundles not directly affected by the injury may also sprout after treatment with the inhibitor neutralizing antibodies.
Neurologists hailed this landmark discovery but cautioned there may be other factors that inhibit nerve growth and regeneration.
Assuming the discovery and findings are correct, researchers have also come upon the answer to an age old question: why is it that peripheral nerves can regenerate themselves while CNS nerves cannot? The answer is "nogo," which exists in the CNS but not in the periphery. It is theorized nogo is programmed to keep the CNA from growing wild.
In test tube experiments, as reported in the journal "Nature," conducted by the Schwab team, nerves were dissected from the rodents (rats) and exposed to the antibody. The nerves grew several hundred nerve connections called axons. (The tiny branches that transmit cellular impulses from cell to cell).
