Neurologists Discover A New Way To Treat Central Nervous System Injury

First Posted: Apr 14, 2016 05:11 AM EDT

The neurologists from the University of California-San Diego have identified a strategy on how to recover from traumatic injury. This refers to the discovery of signals that arranged the construction of the nervous system that is capable of enhancing the return of the function.

Science Daily reports that the study was issued at Nature Neuroscience. It involved animal model wherein the biologists removed the gene that is encoded Ryk, which is a cell surface receptor for signaling proteins that manage the wiring of the nervous system in an expansion. This augments the ability of adult mice to change their neural circuits for the retrieval of the fine motor after having a spinal cord injury.

Yimin Zou, a professor in Neurobiology Section of UC San Diego's Division of Biological Science and the lead author of the study explained that the study postulate first genetic evidence that the signaling proteins, which is encoded a "Wnts" are important for the development of the nervous system have an influence on how the nervous system axons would respond after a spinal cord injury.

"This suggests that many other guidance cues, in addition to these signaling proteins, may also play roles in adult spinal cord repair. This opens up new opportunities to apply what we've learned in the nervous system to treat paralysis in adulthood," said Zou.

They also found out that after manipulating the Ryk on mice, the results of functional recovery was achieved. It also sped up the recovery. Zou said that if this can be applied to humans, the recovery of the people with spinal cord injuries would be improved.

Nervous system injuries are disorders that include the traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal cord injury (SCI), brain cancer and stroke. The TBI and SCI may affect young people due to violence or motion vehicle accident. Stroke affects mostly the elders. On the other hand, the brain tumor may peak children with ages between 3 and 12 and adults with ages between 55 and 65.