Biologists Discover Genes That Repair Nerves After Injury

dreadpiratejaymo · Sep 25, 2011

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110921144604.htm

ScienceDaily (Sep. 22 said:

Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have identified more than 70 genes that play a role in regenerating nerves after injury, providing biomedical researchers with a valuable set of genetic leads for use in developing therapies to repair spinal cord injuries and other common kinds of nerve damage such as stroke.
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This could make the overall quality of life better for a lot of people. Hurray for medical science

waltky · Jul 22, 2012

A first for Europe...

Gene therapy nears approval in Europe
20 July 2012 - Gene therapies alter a patient's DNA

Europe is on the cusp of approving a gene therapy for the first time, in what would be a landmark moment for the field. Gene therapies alter a patient's DNA to treat inherited diseases passed from parent to child. The European Medicines Agency has recommended a therapy for a rare genetic disease which leaves people unable to properly digest fats. The European Commission will now make the final decision. The idea of gene therapy is simple: if there is a problem with part of a patient's genetic code then replace that part of the code. The reality has not been so easy. In one gene therapy trial a US teenager, Jesse Gelsinger, died, and other patients have developed leukaemia. There are no gene therapies available outside of a research lab in Europe or the US.

Gene change

The European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has considered the use of Glybera to treat lipoprotein lipase deficiency. One in a million people have the deficiency. They have damaged copies of a gene which is essential for breaking down fat. It leads to fat building up in the blood, abdominal pain and life-threatening pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas). The only way to manage the condition is by having a very low-fat diet. The therapy uses a virus to infect muscle cells with a working copy of the gene. It was recommended for patients with severe pancreatitis, who cannot control the disease through diet.

'Afraid of a normal meal'

The manufacturer, UniQure, said the decision was a "major breakthrough" for patients and medicine as a whole. UniQure chief executive officer Jorn Aldag said: "Patients with lipoprotein lipase deficiency are afraid of eating a normal meal because it can lead to acute and extremely painful inflammation of the pancreas, often resulting in a visit to intensive care. "Now, for the first time, a treatment exists for these patients that not only reduces this risk of getting severely sick, but also has a multi-year beneficial effect after just a single injection. "Restoring the body's natural ability to break down fat particles in the blood, in order to prevent pancreatitis and excruciating abdominal pain suffered by patients, is what gene therapy is all about: curing disease at the genetic level." Dr Tomas Salmonson, from the agency's Committee, said the use of Glybera should be restricted to patients "with greatest need". China was the first country to officially sanction a gene therapy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18926892
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waltky · Aug 30, 2012

Eat some chocolate, avoid a stroke...

Chocolate may protect the brain from stroke
29 August 2012 - Some health benefits, loads of calories.

Chocolate might not be the healthiest thing for your waistline - but research suggests it may protect against stroke. A study following more than 37,000 Swedish men showed those eating the most chocolate were the least likely to have a stroke. It follows on from other studies that have suggested eating chocolate can improve the health of the heart. However, researchers and the Stroke Association warned the findings were not an excuse to overeat chocolate.

Everyone taking part in the study was asked about their eating habits and their health was monitored for a decade. They were split into four groups based on the amount of chocolate, with the bottom group eating, on average, no chocolate each week and the top group having 63g (2.2oz) - slightly more than an average bar. Comparing the top and bottom groups showed those eating the most chocolate were 17% less likely to have a stroke during the study, published in the journal Neurology.

Flavonoids

One of the researchers, Prof Susanna Larsson, from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said: "The beneficial effect of chocolate consumption on stroke may be related to the flavonoids in chocolate. "Flavonoids appear to be protective against cardiovascular disease through antioxidant, anti-clotting and anti-inflammatory properties. "It's also possible that flavonoids in chocolate may decrease blood concentrations of bad cholesterol and reduce blood pressure." The study also noted that while dark chocolate had been linked to benefits for the heart in the past, milk chocolate was the preferred option in Sweden and in the study.

Dr Clare Walton, from the Stroke Association, said: "Past research has shown that eating dark chocolate might go some way to reducing your stroke risk if it is eaten as part of a healthy, balanced diet. "This study suggests that eating a moderate amount of other types of chocolate could also be beneficial in men. "However, a lot more research is needed and these results should not be used as an excuse for men to eat chocolate as an alternative to regular exercise or eating a healthy diet to reduce their risk of stroke." The authors of the study warned of the high sugar and fat content of chocolate. "It should be consumed in moderation," they said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19402143
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Richard Powell · Nov 27, 2012

This must be a remarkable discovery of the season as it will hold an alternative through which our nervous system will get repaired over meeting injury.

waltky · May 2, 2014

I cried because I had no shoes - until I met a man who had no feet...

New Treatment Regenerates Muscle Lost in Traumatic Injury
April 30, 2014: WASHINGTON U.S. doctors said on Wednesday they have succeeded in coaxing the regeneration of muscle tissue lost in people who suffered traumatic injuries, including wartime bomb wounds, with a new type of treatment that uses material from a pig's bladder.

Implanting the pig material at the wound site enticed the patient's own stem cells -- master cells that can transform into various kinds of cells in the body -- to become muscle cells and regenerate tissue that had been lost, the researchers said. The study was small, involving only five male patients, but its results suggested that this procedure could offer new hope to a category of patients, including troops who suffered major war injuries, with scant good treatment options, they added. All five patients, including two U.S. soldiers hurt by bombs planted by insurgents, had badly damaged leg muscles.

The research was backed by $3 million in funding over five years from the U.S. Defense Department, said Dr. Stephen Badylak of the University of Pittsburgh, who led the study. Thousands of American troops have been left with serious physical impairments after sustaining wounds involving major loss of muscle tissue in roadside bombings and other incidents since 2001 in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When a large amount of muscle is lost in vehicle crashes, industrial accidents, bomb blasts or other traumas, the body is unable to replace it and the site forms scar tissue that lacks the functionality of the lost muscle.

Sgt. Matt Krumwiede of the U.S. Army (L) talks to his friend Sgt. Jesse McCart at a hunting ranch outside San Antonio, Texas

Existing treatments include surgery to remove scar tissue or replace it with muscle from somewhere else in the body, but these methods do not yield satisfying results and are hard on patients, the researchers said. "Nothing has ever worked. There's been multiple things tried: the hype and the hope of stem cell therapy, new surgical techniques," said Badylak. This study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, demonstrated for the first time the regeneration of functional muscle tissue in people with major muscle loss. "While the number of patients was small, we were very encouraged by the data. And we were seeing very dramatic improvements in quality of life for some of our patients," added Dr. J. Peter Rubin of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, another of the researchers.

The doctors implanted material from a pig's urinary bladder called "extracellular matrix" - the non-cellular component including collagen present within all tissues and organs - to serve as scaffolding for the rebuilding of lost muscle mass. This material acted as a "homing device" to recruit existing stem cells in the body to rebuild healthy muscle tissue at the site of the injury, the researchers said. Pig parts have been used for years in surgical procedures. Pig bladder "extracellular matrix" has been used in hernia repair and fixing chest wall defects after cancer removal. Before trying the procedure in people, the researchers said they successfully tested it in mice with muscle injuries.

Wartime injuries
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Biologists Discover Genes That Repair Nerves After Injury

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