Enzyme found to help formation of new axons
Researchers at Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology have announced that they have found an enzyme that helps nerves to grow inn areas that have been damaged after trauma. In typical injuries scar tissue forms around the damage point and the body removes the tissue so that new muscle and nerves can grow in the area that was damaged. In spinal cord injuries the scar tissue forms and that is the end of the story. Special chemicals form that stop the body’s cells from moving in and removing the scar tissue and then allowing the healing process to start. There have have been several studies done in trying to bypass the scar tissue but none have been successful in large scale repair of injured muscle and nerves in the spinal column. The researchers for this paper have found that sugar proteins near the damage point stop the healing and that an enzyme can be used to break down these proteins so that the body can then start repairs. The enzyme, chondroitinase ABC (chABC) is sensitive to high heat, as that in a human body and break down quickly. To stop that process they found that by placing the ABC with another sugar called trehalose they were able to stabilize the ABC allowing it to break down scar tissue over a large area. The gel formed by these sugars can stay stable for up to six weeks in the body allowing the research team to inject growth factors that increased the healing to the point that the test animals started to use their limbs again. The work is still in the beginning stage, but if successful across larger animals may be a way to keep scar tissue to form in newly damaged spinal cord damage. This would allow doctors a chance to use growth factors quickly before nerves die or atrophy near the damaged area. (Source: Reuters)
SCRN has written several articles on different drugs that are working on getting nerves to regrow, but all have run into problems with scar tissue. One plan had chemicals that drilled small holes in the scar tissue but there was typically not enough area cleared out to make a difference in nerve repair. If this enzyme works well in humans we may finally have a way to administer drugs and growth hormones to an area that all but stopped all opportunities to fix the area. The larger area that is opened up to repair the more neurons and muscles that can be repaired. This will give the patient the best chance to get their arms and legs moving again. The study did not say of stem cells could be added to the list of things that could be placed in the area for repairs but anything that increases the healing process across things that were damaged the better. It is hoped that this enzyme does not have unwanted side effects as it is moved from rats to monkeys and eventually human tissue tests. The research did not report any unwanted damage to other parts of the body or for the enzyme to move to other parts of the body. If it can stay placed in the spinal area without the worry of moving and damaging another area, it would make a very safe way of removing scar tissue.
It would be interesting to see how this enzyme works on other parts of the body after damage including knees and hip joints. Both of these typically end up with a lot of scar tissue over time that needs to be removed by a surgeon and then have the joint replaced. It would be great if the enzyme could remove or destroy the scar tissue making it easier to fix the damage. We are sure that there are other uses for removal of scar tissue that would help the body to repair the area other than surgery.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by Soterians: Exciting news re: spinal cord injuries–enzyme helps formation of new axons http://ow.ly/zUlF...
Very interesting.
I’m a little confused on how the process works, though — the enzyme breaks down sugars, which themselves prevent the body from destroying the scar tissue. Is that correct? Doesn’t that mean this would only work on a wound that’s fresh and still healing? But the rest of the article suggests that the enzyme simply breaks down scar tissue itself. That’d be a real boon, especially for keloid-formers…
JS;
From what we understand, the sugar is placed in tubes with other sugars to keep everything from breaking down in the body. The tubes are placed in the scar tissue near the damaged area in the spinal cord. The sugar mixture then breaks down the scar tissue so that neurons can start to make connections. This has been one of the major stumbling blocks of stem cell usage in spinal cord repair – the scar tissue blocked the newly created neurons from hooking up to the originally damaged neurons in the spine. There have been a variety of research teams that have been working on ways to get around all the scar tissue but no one has made any real progress. If this works as well in apes (and then humans) as rats, it will open up brand new areas for researchers to work on so that newly created neurons can finally be hooked up to the older tissue and the brain is then reconnected to the muscles. The other part of the study is the usage of electrical stimulation along neuron groups that have been fixed so that the brain can be retrained to know that these pathways are working again. Once the patient starts to feel and control a muscle group then they are handed off to rehabilitation to strengthen the muscles.
This is very exciting research and we hope that they are successful in getting this to human trials. So much work has been done in neuron repair and replacement that once doctors get past the scar tissue I think we are going to see major advances in spinal cord repair.
Greg
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dan Fritcher, Jacquelyn Wheeler and Bill Curry, Moez Bali. Moez Bali said: An enzyme found by researcher at Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology to help formation of new axons. http://bit.ly/2dbDWt [...]