{"id":87,"date":"2019-07-04T02:37:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T02:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/?p=87"},"modified":"2019-07-04T02:37:41","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T02:37:41","slug":"repair-of-ms-brain-damage-may-be-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/2019\/07\/04\/repair-of-ms-brain-damage-may-be-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Repair of MS Brain Damage May be Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Repair Of Multiple Sclerosis Brain Damage May Be Possible<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

\n\n \t \t\n\t\t\t\tPublished\t\t\t\n\t\t\tThursday 1 November 2012\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\tBy Catharine Paddock PhD<\/a>In what they describe to the press as a “life-changer” for millions \nof people with the disease, researchers in the US report this week a \nstudy where they \n\ndiscovered blocking an enzyme in the brain may help repair the damage \nassociated with multiple sclerosis (MS), and other brain diseases.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nThe findings are due to be published online this week in the Annals of Neurology<\/em>.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myelin Damage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\n\nIn MS<\/a>,\n the protective sheath or myelin around nerve fibers is damaged or \ndestroyed, disrupting the ability of nerve cells to communicate with \neach other. This \n\nprocess, called demyelination, is what causes the range of sensory, \nmovement and cognitive problems typical of the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nLead researcher of the new study, Larry Sherman, a professor at Oregon \nHealth & Science University, heads a lab that had been studying MS \nand other disorders \n\nwhere myelin gets damaged for nearly 15 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nBack in 2005, Sherman’s team published a study in Nature Medicine<\/em>\n reporting their discovery that a sugar molecule called hyaluronic acid \nappears to \n\nplay a key role in demyelination. They found large deposits of \nhyaluronic acid at sites of myelin damage in humans and animals, and \nsuggested the sugar itself \n\nstops remyelination, or repair of damaged myelin, by preventing the \ncells that form the myelin from differentiating at the damage sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nToday’s news comes as The Lancet this week reports two successful trials of a new drug for MS that “reboots” the immune system so it does not attack the nerve fibers<\/a>.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enzyme Prevents Myelin Repair<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"MRI<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Multiple sclerosis<\/a> is a chronic disease that attacks the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves.\n\n\nNow, in their latest findings, Sherman and colleagues propose that it is\n not hyaluronic acid, but the compounds it breaks down into when in the \npresence of an \n\nenzyme called hyaluronidase, that prevents remyelination or myelin \nrepair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nThey found very high levels of the enzyme in brain lesions of patients \nwith multiple sclerosis and in the nervous systems of mice with an \nMS-like disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nWhen they blocked the activity of the enzyme in the mice with the \nMS-like disease, myelin-forming cell differentiation was restored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\n perhaps the more significant result of the study was that the drug the \nresearchers used to restore myelin repair, also led to improved nerve \ncell \n\nfunction.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Target for Drugs to Promote Myelin Repair<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n“What this means is that we have identified a whole new target for drugs\n that might promote repair of the damaged brain in any disorder in which\n demyelination \n\noccurs,” says Sherman in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n“Any kind of therapy that can promote remyelination could be an absolute\n life-changer for the millions of people suffering from MS and other \nrelated disorders,” \n\nhe adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\nSherman, who is also a senior scientist in the Division of Neuroscience \nat the Oregon National Primate Research Center, says the next step is to\n develop a drug \n\nthat specifically targets the effect of hyaluronidase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nHe says the drug they used in the study would not be suitable for humans because it has potentially serious side effects. But a drug designed just for \n\nblocking hyaluronidase would most likely have few, if any, side effects<\/strong> he suggests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\nThe findings are likely to impact research and drug development for MS \nand a range of other disorders involving demyelination, including \ncomplications arising \n\nfrom premature birth. \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not an MS Cure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\n\nSherman also makes the point that blocking the enzyme does not \nconstitute a cure for MS. Other factors could be contributing to \ndemyelination in MS and \n\nrelated diseases. But the discovery of the enzyme, and finding a way to\n block it, may at the very least “lead to new ways to promote the \nrepair of brain and spinal \n\ncord damage either by targeting this enzyme alone or by inhibiting the \nenzyme in conjunction with other therapies,” he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nGrants from the National Institutes of Health, Fast Forward, LLC (a \nsubsidiary of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society), the Laura Fund \nfor Multiple Sclerosis \n\nResearch, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and the American \nHeart Association, helped fund the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\nWritten by Catharine Paddock PhD \t \t\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Repair Of Multiple Sclerosis Brain Damage May Be Possible Published Thursday 1 November 2012 By Catharine Paddock PhDIn what they describe to the press as a “life-changer” for millions of people with the disease, researchers in the US report this week a study where they discovered blocking an enzyme in the brain may help repair…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}