Forskningsnytt:  Nannette Kenison på The Stroke Patient Support Pages har sendt oss et par linker til interessante artikler om "hjerne-repararasjon"

Hvorfor reparerer ikke kroppen selv hjerneskader? Og hva kan eventuelt gjøres med det?

Når nervesystemet i f.eks arm eller ben (det s.k."perifere" nervesystemet) skades, så sørger kroppen selv for at de ødelagte nerveforbindelsene gjenopprettes. Men når tilsvarende skader skjer i det s.k. "sentrale" nervesystemet i hjerne og ryggrad, ved slag og trafikkuhell, så skjer det ingen tilsvarende "reparasjoner", med lammelser og andre varige skadevirkninger som følge. Hvorfor er det slik? Og kan vi evt.  få kroppen til selv å reparere skader i Sentral- nervesystemet også? Forskningsnyhetene fra Weizmann Instituttet i Israel indikerer at svaret på dette siste spørsmålet, kanskje vil kunne bli et "Ja" om en tid. Men følg linken(e) nedenfor, les og døm og selv! (som dere vil se, minner denne forskningen meget om det vi tidligere har rapportert om dyreforsøkene  med de hjerneskadde rottene, som prof. Martin Schwab i Zürich, Sveits har drevet med en god stund, med oppsiktsvekkende gode resultater, og i begge tilfelle er det gjennom organismens immunsystem at "reparasjons- prosessene" settes igang

Trond

Research News: Nannette Kenison of The Stroke Patient Support Pages has sent us links to two very intreresting and informative articles on "Brain Repair:"

Why doesn't the body repair injuries to the brain? And what can be done about it?

When the nervous system in an arm or a leg (the so called "peripheral" nervous system) is injured, the body itself sees to it that all damages are repaired and that all the prior bodily functions are restored to normal again. But when the same kind of injuries occure in the so called "Central" Nervous System (CNS) in the brain and spine, either through a stroke or some other type of traumatic brain/spinal injury, no comparable repair jobs are performed by our human organisms. Why is that? And is it possible to induce the body to repair injuries to the CNS too? Research done at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, indicates that the answer to the latter question may be affirmative in a not too distant future. But follow the links below,  read the articles and judge for yourselves. As you can see this research closely resembles what we've reported earlier about the brain Damaged Rats trials of prof. Martin Schwab in Zürich, Switzerland, in that in both instances the immune system is triggering the recovery process.

Trond

The surprising relationship between the Central Nervous and the Immune Systems

Weizmann Institute

ANAHEIM, CA, January 24, 1999 -- New concepts, revealing a unique and surprising relationship between the central nervous and the immune systems, were presented today by Prof. Michal Schwartz of Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Prof. Schwartz' findings, which have the potential for being further developed into clinical therapy, have also been published in the January 1999 issue of Nature Medicine:

- In her latest study, documented in the January 1999 Nature Medicine article, Prof. Schwartz and her team, in collaboration with a research group headed by Prof. Irun Cohen of the Weizmann Insitute's Immunology Department discovered that the same cells that cause autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis-- a condition in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues--can actually be useful in repairing damage to the central nervous system!
............................................................................
(veldig lovende, men også litt skremmende, ikke sant!?)
(very promising, but also a bit scary, isn't it!?)
(Hva om de nye nerveforbindelsene ikke regenereres akkurat slikde var skal? What if the new nerve connections aren't created excactly where they used to be?)
Trond

Prof. Michal Schwartz

From Inflammation And Autoimmunity To Nerve Regeneration And Protection

pluss/plus

The Linkage Between the Immune System and the Nervous System in Response to Trauma: Neuroprotection and Regeneration

Mer/More:

Scientists report a major advance in spinal cord repair

By Nature Medicine,
July 1998.

The researchers suggest that this method of injecting autologous macrophages into the site of spinal cord injury may have clinical potential in treating paraplegia.

Proneuron Biotechnology Inc., i Israel forsøker nå å utvikle kommersielle legemidler/behandlingsmetoder av prof.Michal Schwartz' forskning. Firmaet har lykkes i å utvide naturlig forkommende immun-prosesser i dyreforsøk, og har vist at det kan induseres nerve-regenerering i flere forskjellige patologiske tilstander i Sentralnervesystemet. Firmaet har utviklet en mønsterbeskyttet laboratorieprosess for manipulering av autologe celler (dvs. den aktuelle organismens egne celler.)

Proneuron Biotechnology Inc., of Israel is engaged in developing commercial treatments  based on the above research. It.has succeeded in augmenting naturally occurring immune processes in animal models and has demonstrated the induction of nerve regeneration in several pathological CNS conditions. The Company has developed a proprietary laboratory process for manipulation of autologous cells.

7. feb. 1999

Nytt websted:  A New Web Site:

STROKE FAMILY

En Ny behandling for Afasi?

A NEW APPROACH TO SPEECH RECOVERY

Language on the Mirror Side of the Brain

1. feb. 1999

THE MIAMI PROJECT TO CURE PARALYSIS

Etter masse leting (etter hva jeg trodde het "The Florida Project") har jeg endelig funnet linken overfor!

Cell Lines Hold Surprising Potential for Replacing Lost Nerve Cells

THE MIAMI PROJECT TO CURE PARALYSIS
RN33B cells as they appear in tissue culture where the cell line is propagated
by cell division. (Photographed in a scanning electron microscope)

Trond

26. jan. 1999

The Stroke Patient Support Pages (SPSP)

Fra Nancy Lattimer på den amerikanske STROKE-L listen, har jeg mottatt en link til dette interessante Slag-webstedet (opprettet og drevet av pårørende til slagrammede.):

The Stroke Patient Support Pages

På disse sidene finnes det også oppdatert informasjon om Nevron-celle transplantasjons-forsøkene ved University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) (se Transplantasjon av hjerneceller nedenfor på denne siden for flere detaljer, endel av disse detaljene er også med på The Stroke Patient Support Pages'  oppdatering

NB! Nytt! Når dere først besøker denne site'n så følg også  linken:

Doctors Ready To Harvest Cells for Brain Repair  til flg. artikkel:

HUMAN BRAIN TRANSPLANTATION PROTOCOL APPROVED TO REVERSE NERVE AND BRAIN DAMAGE.

på: http://www.newswise.com/articles/CELLHRV.CED.html

NORA Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation/habilitation

Fra vår amerikanske bidragsyter og samarbeidspartner  Rob Evan Hughes har jeg mottatt ovenstående link til en organisasjonen NORA, som spesialiserer seg på spørsmål om rehabilitering av skader på syns-evnen etter hjerneskader og slag. Her er eksempler på noen av temaene de behandler på sin webside:

From our American contributor and partner, Rob Evan Hughes, I received this link (above) to an organization called NORA, which focuses on questions concerning the rehabilitation of damages to the visual system, following traumatic brain injuries and strokes. Below are some examples of the topics to be found at the NORA web site:

	Reading Problems & Traumatic Brain Injury
	Visual Field Impairment & Rehabilitation
	Accommodative (Focusing) Problems
	pluss mer.... plus more... NORA er et veldig godt eksempel på den type website for slagrehabilitering, som Rob og jeg en tid har arbeidet for å få etablert i sporadisk samarbeide med tysk og amerikansk fagekspertise innen nevrologi (kfr. RNN-initiativet) Dessverre ser fremdriften i dette prosjektet foreløpig til å ha stoppet litt opp. NORA is a very good example of the kind of website dedicated to stroke and traumatic brain injury rehabilitation, that Rob and I have worked for some time to establish, sporadically in cooperation with German and American medical experts in the neurosciences.(cfr. the RNN initiative) Regrettably there has been little progress on this project lately. Trond

14. feb. 1999

Slagdialogen

Norsk medisinsk internetforum:

Norsk Svar Legedialog på Internett

10.feb.1999

John M. Heidemann, Jr.  på  STROKE-L  la idag ut tips om flg. på listen.:

Slangegift i akuttbehandling av Slag
Snake venom and stroke

http://www.mayohealth.org/mayo/common/htm/headline.htm

An experimental drug derived from pit viper venom is being used to treat acute stroke within the first 3 hours of the onset of symptoms. Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center found that 42 percent of people treated with ANCROD recovered the physical and mental abilities that they had prior to their stroke! ANCROD works as an anticoagulant, helping blood to flow more freely. The only anti-clotting drug currently approved for use in early stroke treatment is tissue plasminogen activator (TPA). The research was reported at the 24th American Heart Association International Conference on Stroke and Cerebral Circulation in Nashville, Tenn.

Because Ancrod is a powerful drug which can reduce the level of fibrinogen to the point of potentially causing bleeding, a rapid diagnostic test is needed to help the physician maintain the patient's fibrinogen at a safe, but effective level.

Problemene her synes altså å være lignende dem som hefter ved TPA- akuttbehandlingen, som jo også har en 3-timers grense.
Mer info...

More...

6.feb.1999
Siste nytt om Neuroncelle-transplantasjonstestene
Latest news on the Neuron cell transplant trials

Fra Nannette Kenison på
The Stroke Patient Support Pages har jeg mottatt et  veldig interessante tips om at det igår ble sendt ut en en pressemelding om Nevroncelle- transplantasjonsforsøkene, og at de foreløpige resultatene av disse faktisk har vist seg å være positive! for flere av de behandlede slagpasientene. Detaljene vil dere finne her på:
The Stroke Patient Support Pages update

Nannette Kenison of
The Stroke Patient Support Pages has sent me some very interesting news about a Press Release being published yesterday concerning the preliminary results of the Neuron Cell transplant trials, and that for several of the stroke patients participating the effects  seem to be positive! You will find the details here:  The Stroke Patient Support Pages update

Viktig Forskningsnytt/ Important New Research:

Infarkt og blodpropper er ikke lenger riktig slik vi har trodd!

Infarcts and Blood Clots ain't quite what we used to believe anymore!

Peter Allen på den amerikanske STROKE-L listen postet en melding med link til flg. interessante artikkel. Som bl. meget annet varsler at vi nok kanskje bør utvide vokabularet til også å omfatte begrepet "mykt cholesterol.", når vi snakker om blodpropper og relaterte sykdommer

Peter Allen on the American STROKE-L list posted a message with a link to the following interesting article, which among many other things tells us that we ought to extend our vocabularies with the concept of  "Soft Cholesterol.", when talking about blood clots, and related diseases

Se også viktige relaterte nyheter / See also these important, related news:

New Study Finds Cholesterol-Lowering "Statins" Reduce Death Toll
Men hva heter de amerikanske "Statin"-medisinene Lovastatin, Simvastatin og Pravastatin her i Norge tro? Er Zuccor en av dem?

Trond

De amerikanske helsemyndighetene med nye retningslinjer for  hvordan man skal unngå   nye slag

FDA issues new guidelines to prevent secondary stroke

Reell Slagbehandling i Virtual Reality?

(Real Stroke therapy in Virtual Reality?)

Jeg fant denne avhandlingen på Internet::Virtual reality environments for rehabilitation of perceptual-motor disorders following stroke og ble straks nysgjerrig fordi filosofien bak dette jo antagelig er ganske parallell med den "biofeedback", som man søker å oppnå med rehabiliteringsverktøy som elektromyografi (Automove o.a..) Jeg sendte derfor en kopi av avhandlingen med spørsmål om vurdering av den til
Dr. Anand.D.Pandyan, ved Center for Rehab. Eng. Studies ved University of Newcastle, og interessant nok er hans vurdering av dette veldig positiv! Han sier faktisk at forskningen innen nevrologisk rehabilitering nå generelt er fokusert på bruk av Virtual Reality-metoder i de miljøer han selv kjenner og arbeider i. Han forteller faktisk at: "we are merging with a VR and Robotics research group", så dette kommer vi nok til å få høre endel mere om antar jeg!  Han lovet videre å sende meg opplysninger om utviklingen, når det skjer  noe interessant nytt. Så dette er spennende, synes jeg!
Trond

New drug melts away heart blockages

Fra Medserv medical News

CHICAGO, Dec. 1 (UPI) - A new treatment shows promise in melting blood vessel blockages that can cause heart attacks or strokes. The drug, letetium texaphyrin, attaches to molecular receptors located on the blockages, and when activated by light the drug destroys the cellular buildup.

At the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, researchers at Stanford University said today when the drug is used to open clogged leg arteries patients report they can walk farther without pain and that the drug causes no apparent long-term adverse side effects.  "We must emphasize that these are very preliminary results, but they are promising," said Dr. Mahmood Razavi, assistant professor of radiology at Stanford (Calif.) University Medical Center

Kommentar: Kan dette gi håp til slagpasienter med inoperable, tette vener i hjernen også tro?

Se også her  for flere detaljer om dette!
Trond

- GVG, or gamma vinyl-GABA, appears to prevent the biochemical and behavioral effects of nicotine and cocaine in much the same way it prevents an epileptic seizure: by altering the way brain cells talk to one another:

Epilepsy Agent Could Also Treat Drug Addiction!

By Merritt McKinney

[Medical Tribune: Internist & Cardiologist Edition 39(16):4, 1998. © 1998 Jobson Healthcare Group]

NEW YORK--If clinical trials in humans confirm new animal research, a medication developed to treat epilepsy could one day provide the first drug treatment for cocaine   addiction, researchers reported here.

Scientists found that a drug known as gamma vinyl-GABA (GVG) targets the system that regulates the neurotransmitter dopamine, although it does not act directly on dopamine.

In studies conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., lead researcher Stephen L. Dewey, Ph.D., and his colleagues found that GVG blocked the effects of cocaine in rats and baboons. Once they were given GVG, the drug also curbed rats' desire for cocaine, he said.

"All we're doing is...giving a compound that takes baseline dopamine levels and lowers them," Dr. Dewey said. When a person takes cocaine, dopamine levels shoot up rapidly, he explained, adding that cocaine use with GVG will still increase dopamine levels, but not enough to produce a "high."

Dr. Dewey noted that GVG is not addictive and does not cause withdrawal symptoms when the medication is stopped. !!

The drug may prove to be helpful in treating addiction to other substances besides cocaine, such as nicotine, morphine and amphetamines, all of which increase levels of dopamine, he added.

But Dr. Dewey stressed that the drug has yet to be tested as a treatment for cocaine addiction in humans.

Clinical trials to test the effect of GVG on cocaine addiction in humans will begin this fall (dvs.1998), reported Jonathan D. Brodie, M.D., Ph.D., a psychiatrist at New York University School of Medicine.

Approval of the drug for epilepsy would allow doctors to prescribe it for other uses, Dr. Brodie said. But he urged physicians to wait until studies are complete before prescribing the medication to treat addiction.
Anti-Addiction Drug in Tests

New ways to treat strokes
81% From Correspondent Dan Rutz LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Doctors in Los Angeles have devised a bold new way to treat strokes. The idea: reverse the direction that blood flows through the brain. "We have a couple of exciting instances," said Dr. John Frazee of the University of California. ...

NEURAL SYSTEMS: DYNAMIC MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN CNS REGENERATION AND DEGENERATION

Neuroregeneration Laboratory, Program of Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School

Our understanding of regeneration and plasticity of the mammalian nervous system has developed greatly over the last decade, due to basic research in rats following implantation of fetal, cultured or genetically engineered cells into the adult brain .

While the adult brain previously was thought of as a non-regenerative system for pathway formation, recent studies show how dissociated primordial neurons implanted into the adult central nervous system can grow to reconnect neuronal pathways and integrate in a molecular and physiological fashion. Thus, anatomical, neurochemical, molecular and behavioral parameters indicate that reconstructive events can take place also in the degenerated adult brain!!

Relaxing Your Blood Vessels May Be The Key To Lowering Cholesterol

Fra Doctor's Guide

Drugs that lower blood cholesterol levels may work by increasing the amount of a chemical that relaxes blood vessels, helping them regain flexibility, according to a study reported today in the journal Circulation.

The chemical, nitric oxide, signals blood vessels to open and close in response to the body's changing need for increased or decreased blood flow. Individuals with elevated cholesterol have an impaired ability to relax, or dilate, their blood vessels, which researchers attribute to a problem in nitric oxide activation. In individuals whose cholesterol levels were lowered by the drug fluvastatin, more nitric oxide was produced, improving dilation.

"Cholesterol-lowering therapy has been associated with a decrease in deaths from heart disease and this improvement in dilation may be one way that the drug works," said Roland Schmeider, M.D., professor of medicine, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.

Researchers already know that cholesterol-lowering helps prevent fatty deposits that can clog blood vessels, triggering a heart attack or stroke. The study finds that lowering cholesterol also improves dilation of blood vessels.

Schmeider said he believes that the other cholesterol-lowering or statin drugs improve vessel dilation..... mer

Immature cell find boosts brain repairs !

                  By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

BRAIN repair without transplants of foetal tissue is now a possibility after discovery of a class of immature nerve cells that can be customised to make any type of brain tissue.

Foetal cell transplants have shown some promise in treating degenerative brain disorders, though they have been controversial because they rely on abortions. Instead, transplant tissue could come from immature cells scattered throughout the adult brain, from a patient or a dead donor. Today it is announced that the cells can be stimulated by signalling chemicals to grow into adult brain cells - neurons - a finding with significant implicationsbecause adult neurons, once damaged, are reluctant to regenerate themselves. In the journal Nature, Prof Fred Gage and colleagues from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, report that these "late developer" neurons are likely to be useful for repairing a damaged brain because they can be tailored for any use.

Prof Fred Gage

Daily Telegraph 17 October 1996

10.feb.1999

Data Shows Evidence Of Mechanism Of Action Of Citicoline In Stroke Treatment

Fra Doctor's Guide

LEXINGTON, MA -- Dec. 17, 1998 -- Researchers at the Brain Imaging Center at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA., have for the first time demonstrated that chronic administration of Interneuron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s citicoline increases the amount of essential cell membrane components, known as phospholipid precursors, in the human brain.

Their data represent the first demonstration that human brain lipid metabolism can be modified using a pharmacological, or drug treatment, strategy. Previous studies in animals have suggested that citicoline can affect such metabolism by increasing phosphatidylcholine production and incorporating this phospholipid into brain cell membranes in injured or aging animal brains

Data from the study were presented this week by Dr. Perry Renshaw of McLean before the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Citicoline is currently in Phase III clinical as a treatment for ischemic stroke.

29. jan. 1999

NEW HUMAN DATA PROVIDE EVIDENCE OF MECHANISM OF ACTION OF CITICOLINE IN THE TREATMENT OF STROKE

Business Editors and Medical Writers
LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 1998--

Administration Of Citicoline Shown To Increase Essential Brain Cell Components In Humans.

Researchers at the Brain Imaging Center at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., have for the first time demonstrated that chronic administration of citicoline increases the amount of essential cell membrane components, known as phospholipid precursors, in the human brain. Their data represent the first demonstration that human brain lipid metabolism can be modified using a pharmacological, or drug treatment, strategy. Previous studies in animals have suggested that citicoline can affect such metabolism by increasing phosphatidylcholine production and incorporating this phospholipid into brain cell membranes in injured or aging animal brains.!

Data from the McLean study, which was sponsored by Interneuron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPIC), were presented this week by Dr. Perry F. Renshaw of McLean before the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Citicoline is currently in Phase 3 clinical development by Interneuron as a treatment for ischemic stroke!! (blodpropp?) "We believe these findings have implications for the use of citicoline to treat acute stroke, where cell membranes break down as a result of reduced or absent blood flow," said Bobby W. Sandage, Jr., executive vice president, research and development, at Interneuron. "It is believed that the body's ability to save and repair these brain cells is directly related to the availability of essential phospholipid raw material required for the synthesis of nerve cell membranes. It appears that when citicoline is administered, these essential phospholipids are increased, thus allowing the brain to repair and possibly restore function to the damaged cells."

The study involved 14 volunteers over the age of 60. Each subject's brain was imaged using the specialized technique of magnetic resonance spectroscopy. This technique has been used to document changes in brain phospholipids in a range of central nervous disorders. The subjects were then administered citicoline, 500 milligrams orally per day for 6 weeks, and imaged again. This dosing regimen of citicoline is the same as used in previous trials in stroke patients and lower than the regimen employed in Interneuron's ongoing Phase 3 trial (2000 milligrams orally per day for six weeks). Citicoline treatment was associated with statistically significant increases in phosphocholine (10%, p=0.02) and glycerophosphoethanolamine (18%, p=0.02).

NB! Se også de andre artiklene om Citicoline pådenne siden (ovenfor)

Note! See the other Citicoline articles on this page too(above.)

Slagrammede kan leve både lenge og godt

Stroke Survivors Can Fare Well Into Older Age

Fra Doctor's Guide

Stroke survivors have the potential to live independent lives into their 80s and 90s just as well as people of the same age and sex who have not had a stroke, according to a study in this month's issue of the journal Stroke.

 "What we have consistently found is that people who survive a stroke -- and one of the biggest problems is to survive it -- have a better quality of life than anyone has previously believed," said the report's lead author, Glen Gresham, M.D., professor and chairman of the department of rehabilitation medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo, Erie County Medical Center.

 .....mer

Significant Cognitive Improvement Among Stroke Patients With Citicoline

Fra Doctor's Guide

Neuropsychological test findings among patients recovering from ischemic stroke who participated in a Phase 3 clinical trial completed in 1996 have demonstrated a significant improvement in the cognitive function of those patients who received citicoline, a drug under development by Interneuron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:IPIC)!!!

The findings, presented at the 22nd International Joint Conference on Stroke and Cerebral Circulation of the American Heart Association on Feb. 8, 1997, demonstrated that patients who were given 500 milligrams of citicoline within 24 hours following the onset of stroke symptoms and continuously for six weeks thereafter scored statistically significantly higher on a battery of tests measuring learning ability and memorization skills than did patients who received placebo. As previously reported, this group of patients also exhibited significantly improved neurologic function, as assessed by the Barthel Index at 12 weeks following stroke....mer

Se også Citicoline artikkelen lenger ned / See the Citicoline article further down too!

Vertex to Receive U.S. Patent Covering Compounds That Stimulate Nerve Growth

Cambridge, MA, March 28, 1997 -- The United States Patent and Trademark Office will issue to Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq:VRTX) on April 22, 1997 United States Patent No. 5,622,970 covering compounds which the Company is currently pursuing for use in stimulating nerve growth. In Vertex's neurophilins program, the Company has designed orally administered compounds to enhance the functional recovery of injured neurons.

As part of its ongoing neurophilins program, Vertex is developing these and other orally administered compounds for nerve growth applications including neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases; peripheral neuropathies, which result from degeneration of sensory and motor nerves; as well as to treat nerve injury resulting from trauma or stroke. In November 1996, Vertex reported research showing that a representative compound from a bank of compounds designed by the Company accelerates nerve repair in a rat model of nerve injury.

Timcodar (VX-853) for Peripheral Neuropathy

---------------------------------------
Cambridge, MA, November 10, 1998

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Begins Phase II Clinical Trial of Neurophilin Compound, Targeting Treatment of Peripheral Neuropathies

NB: Jeg er IKKE  aksjonær i Vertex! Men det ser jo ut som om de driver med forskning av stor interesse for oss.! Ikke sant?

NOTE: I'm not a Vertex stockholder! But it seems they're into several research projects of great interest to us, doesn't it? :-)
Trond

30. jan. 1999

http://www.med.usf.edu/PUBAFF/hot/sertoli.html

TESTICLE CELLS BOOST FUNCTION OF RAT BRAINS DAMAGED BY PARKINSON'S

Cells from the testes may one day enable neurosurgeons to improve the function of tissue damaged by Parkinson's disease, stroke or other neurodegenerative disorders, said the lead researcher for a University of South Florida study published today.

USF researchers found that rats with symptoms of Parkinson's improved significantly when Sertoli cells from rat testes were implanted into the brains of the rats. Furthermore, embryonic rat neurons added to Sertoli cell factors survived longer and grew more new fibers than neurons added to cultures without traces of Sertoli cells.

The study appears in the October issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

"The results suggest that Sertoli cells may help regrow the neural connections to the brain lost in Parkinson's or keep the remaining dopamine-producing brain cells alive," said Paul Sanberg, PhD, professor and director of neurosurgical research at USF.

Parkinson's disease gradually kills the cells that produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter needed for control of movement.

This latest Sertoli cell research builds upon a USF study published last year in Nature Biotechnology. That earlier study demonstrated that rat Sertoli cells successfully protected themselves and nearby transplanted cells from attack by the rat's own immune system. Normally the immune response in the rat's brain would have rejected the transplanted cells that were taken from another species.

But, Dr. Sanberg said, Sertoli cells release growth factors and other substances that appear to promote the survival and growth of transplanted grafts as well as ward off the brain's immune enforcer cells, called microglia.

The studies are a first step in exploring the clinical potential of Sertoli cells, said Thomas Freeman, M.D., USF associate professor of surgery.

If animal Sertoli cells suitable for human transplants could be found, Dr. Freeman said, they might be useful in increasing the survival of human neural transplants. Currently, fewer than 5 percent of the cells transplanted in the brain to restore normal dopamine levels survive in Parkinson's patients.

Another possibility is that Sertoli cells alone might actually be an alternative to neural tissue transplantation if they could be implanted in the brain early enough to arrest the progression of Parkinson's, Dr. Freeman said.

Other USF researchers for the Nature Medicine study were Drs. Cesario Borlongan, Agneta Othberg, Samuel Saporta, and Don Cameron.

Se også hva rapporterer   om dette!

14.feb.1999

Neurotrophic Factors :

ELEVATION OF BRAIN NEUROTROPHIN mRNA BY ORAL TREATMENT WITH AIT-082

NeoTherapeutics

1998 SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE Meeting in Los Angeles

AIT-082 is a novel small molecule that, in animals, crosses the blood-brain barrier to regenerate nerve function by increasing levels of neurotrophic growth factors and causing nerve sprouting in the brain. Pre-clinical studies in animals have demonstrated that AIT-082 improves memory in aged animals and in animals with neurological deficits.

Abstract:

The object of this study was to determine whether AIT-082, a analog of hypoxanthine, modified the levels of neurotrophins in the brains of mice with natural age-induced memory deficits or rats with brain lesions. Previous studies have shown that AIT-082 increased the levels of mRNA for NGF, NT-3 and bFGF but not BDNF in cultures of astrocytes. Thirteen month old C57BL/6 mice received AIT-082 in their drinking water (equiv. to 30 mg/kg/day) for ten months. A control group received no drug in their drinking water.

During this period, mice were tested for working memory performance in the win-shift paradigm, a delayed alternation positive reinforcement task which measures the duration of the memory trace. At 23 months of age, there was a clear difference between controls (no memory) and AIT-082 treated (in which 50% of the mice exhibited no deficit). Mice were sacrificed and brain tissue analyzed for neurotrophin mRNA using RT-PCR technology. There was a significant increase in the mRNA for NGF, NT-3 and bFGF in the frontal cortex and hippocampus but not the cerebellum of animals that had functionally intact memory when compared to animals that could not perform the memory task.

Bilateral lesions of the nucleus basalis of Meynert in 250 g male Wistar rats produced by ibotenic acid lead to memory deficits when tested in the Morris water maze. Treatment with AIT-082 (20 mg/kg/day in the drinking water) ameliorated the memory impairment by 20 days after lesion. The levels of neurotrophins were measured in lesioned animals after treatment.

AIT-082 is orally active, rapidly penetrates the blood brain barrier and induces the production of multiple growth factors at the appropriate target sites in the central nervous system.

AIT-082, a unique purine derivative, enhances nerve growth factor mediated neurite outgrowth from PC12 cells.

Middlemiss PJ, Glasky AJ, Rathbone MP, Werstuik E, Hindley S, Gysbers J

Department of Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. middlems@fhs.csu.mcmaster.ca

AIT-082 is a novel, metabolically stable, derivative of the purine hypoxanthine. Addition of AIT-082 to cultured PC12 cells enhanced significantly nerve growth factor (NGF)-mediated neurite outgrowth from PC12 cells. These results suggest a cellular mechanism, the enhancement of NGF-action, that might account for the ability of AIT-082 to restore age-induced working memory deficits in mice.

PMID: 8584241, UI: 96156470

Immature cell find boosts brain repairs

                  By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

BRAIN repair without transplants of foetal tissue is now a possibility after discovery of a class of immature nerve cells that can be customised to make any type of brain tissue.

Foetal cell transplants have shown some promise in treating degenerative brain disorders, though they have been controversial because they rely on abortions. Instead, transplant tissue could come from immature cells scattered throughout the adult brain, from a patient or a dead donor. Today it is announced that the cells can be stimulated by signalling chemicals to grow into adult brain cells - neurons - a finding with significant implicationsbecause adult neurons, once damaged, are reluctant to regenerate themselves. In the journal Nature, Prof Fred Gage and colleagues from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, report that these "late developer" neurons are likely to be useful for repairing a damaged brain because they can be tailored for any use.

Prof Fred Gage

Daily Telegraph 17 October 1996

Induction of neurogenesis from neural stem cells in adult central nervous system

Gode forskningsnyheter om muligheter for regenerering av nerveceller i sentralnervesystemet. Les detaljert sammendrag ved å klikke på pilen her:

Fra: Paraplegikerkredsen (Danmark)DR. CHARLES KHOURI'S POSSIBLE BREAKTHROUGH IN
CURING DOG PARALYSIS
Rehabilitering av Hjernestammeslag hos forsøksdyr
Rehabilitation of Brain Stem Stroke in Lab Animals Dette er egentlig en gammel nyhet vi har hatt i SlagPosten ganske lenge nå, men da jeg nylig fant frem til flere detaljer om dette på Internet, og også ble klar over at det faktisk dreiet seg om rehabilitering etter hjernestamme-skader, som,jo vanligvis ansees som den aller mest alvorlige og vanskeligste typen av Slag. Kan det kanskje være av interesse og titte på denne nyheten igjen? Følg da linken her nedenfor
Brain-damaged rats grow new nerve fibers after treatment with antibodyListen to your DNA

© Susan Alexjander holds an MA in music, which she teaches in Sacramento, California. Her compositions are fusing science and art, producing music that is a collaboration between her and DNA itself.

She asked if the movements of the atoms and molecules that make up our DNA could be recorded and heard. If so, what would they sound like? Random noise? Melodic?"Sound and the body interested me," she says, "so did maths, physics and their relationship with sound. Because of this, I started collecting frequencies in nature."......
Les og lytt her:....
Transplantasjon av hjerneceller
Utdrag fra The National Stroke Association's Newsletter:
(The National Stroke Association, NSA, er den amerikanske landsforeningen for slagrammede.)

Jeg har jo rapportert detaljert om "neuron transplants" på denne siden flere ganger tidligere. Imidlertid får dette en helt annen aktualitet når det nå også publiseres i NSA's medlemsfora, synes jeg, fordi NSA jo vanligvis er meget forsiktig med å gi falske forhåpninger, om nye slagbehandlingsmetoder. For å skrive artikkelen nedenfor antar jeg derfor at NSAs medisinske råd må ha fått tilgang til resultatene av de første forsøkene fra UPMC, Pittsburgh universitetet, og at disse altså følgelig må kunne antas å være positive(!?)Jeg har forsøkt å innhente kommentarer om "neuron transplants" fra norsk, nevro-medisinsk fagmiljø for å finne ut hvor meget av dette som er kjent her i landet, og hvordan det vurderes, men på det hold er det, som alltid tidligere, taust som i graven og ingen svar å få.Underlig at det alltid skal være så uhyggelig meget vanskeligere å få norske medisinske kompetansemiljøer i tale enn f.eks. deres engelske, tyske og amerikanske kollegaer!Noen som har en plausibel teori om årsakene til dét?
Men kanskje vet man her i landet rett og slett lite om spørsmålene som stilles? Det blir jo etterhvert en nærliggende, omenn lite tilfedsstillende, forklaring!Trond
First Brain Tissue Transplant Performed on Humans
"Be Stroke Smart" Volume 15  · Number 8  · August 1998New treatments for paralysis and decreased cognitive function could be available within a few years for stroke patients, if new brain tissue research proves fruitful.
Recently, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) performed the world's first brain cell transplant to reverse damage from stroke, on a 62-year- old woman with paralysis of the right leg and arm and loss of most of her speech.
While fetal human and fetal animal cell transplants have been tried with promising results for Parkinson's disease, this is the first study to address the efficacy of the cells on human stroke victims. The trial is also the first brain cell transplant to use tissue grown in a lab, avoiding the ethical issues with the use of fetal tissue.
"This trial opens the door to fuller recovery from stroke. While physical and occupational therapy helps many patients adapt to the damage their brain has suffered from stroke, neuron cell transplantation may allow patients to recover lost abilities," said Douglas Kondiziolka, MD, co-principal investigator for this study and professor of neurological surgery and radiation oncology for the UPMC.
Another remarkable development for this trial is the use of the treatment on people six months to six years, post stroke!!
"This is an exciting day in the treatment of stroke. Vigorous research to date has concentrated on prevention and ways to limit damage that has already occurred in the stroke patient's brain. If the phase one trial proves successful, the next step would be a multi-center trial," said Lawerence Wechsler, MD, director of the UPMC Stroke Institute
Se også side 7 i Slagposten for flere detaljer....More details on Page 7 of Slagposten....
Litt forskningshistorikk
The neurons which were implanted are manufactured by Layton Bioscience. The firm's president and founder, Gary Snable, said the neurons come from a patient who had testicular cancer sometime in the late 70s. His cancer had spread to his lungs and formed a tumor that was growing a number of different types of tissue, including neurons.
Researchers have been growing and working with this unique tumor for many years. Neurons derived from the line of cells that come from this tumor appear to function as normal neurons or brain cells, and in the animal models those cells have never become cancerous again.!
Layton Bioscience hopes to use these neurons for many purposes. They are testing them first in stroke patients, but hope to use them for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, brain injury, and even spinal cord injury. Very early tests in animals show some promise for repairing spinal cord damage, but much more study needs to be done.
The research is similar in many ways to human fetal tissue research in Parkinson's disease, but there are some key differences. Finding enough fetal tissue to transplant is very difficult, controversial, and the transplants do not always last.
The neurons like those implanted in the stroke patient are embryonic in nature, but are already specialized into the exact type of cell used by the brain. In animal tests, this has allowed the neurons to hook up with other brain cells much more efficiently.
Test animals had artificially induced strokes that reduced motor function and memory. Treatments with the manufactured neurons greatly reversed those problems!!
NB! Note!
The researchers said they hope to eventually be able to grow neurons derived from each patient and inject them back into the patient, but that research is still far from completion.
Dette skulle jo løse problemet med avstøtning, såvel som fjerne det lite hyggelige aspektet med å få implantert celler som stammer fra andre, fremmede celler med "progammeringsfeil" i DNA, som i sin tid altså resulterte i kreft! Selv om forskerne sier at de aldri har utviklet seg til kreftceller under dyreforsøkene Se ellers artikkelen nedenfor, som synes å kunne løse dette problemet!
Trond