Molecule discovery may lead to new drugs for brain and spinal cord injury

Molecule discovery may lead to new drugs for brain and spinal cord injury :

Axon damage is a feature of injury to the central nervous system, such as that which occurs in traumatic brain injury, stroke, and spinal cord injury. It is the main reason for disability that results from these conditions.

Unfortunately, once they are damaged, axons do not regenerate easily. Also, recent research suggests that in the case of traumatic brain injury, axons can continue to degenerate even years after injury and may play a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease-like changes in the brain.

The new study - led by McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and published in the journal Neuron - concerns a family of proteins called 14-3-3 that show some ability to protect nerve cells or neurons.

Senior author Alyson Fournier, a professor of neurology and neurosurgery at McGill, heads a laboratory that has been investigating 14-3-3 and looking for ways to stimulate axon regeneration.