Stroke: a new strategy for protecting neurons

Biologists have found out how the brain protects itself from the effects of stroke

RIA NewsThe human and mouse brains are protected from the effects of stroke by the hamartin protein, which causes neurons to "eat" part of themselves, receiving energy and oxygen, which allows them to live for several tens of minutes without blood access, according to an article published in the journal Nature Medicine (Papadakis et al., Tsc1 (hamartin) confers neuroprotection against ischemia by inducing autophagy; a popular retelling is given in the press release Ability of brain to protect itself from damage revealed - VM).

"We still have a lot to test before this discovery can be used in clinics. Nevertheless, we can already say that for the first time we have a strategy to protect nerve cells from the effects of stroke. We will try to create a small molecule that will have the same effect on cells as hamartin," said Alastair Buchan from the University of Oxford (UK).

Bushan and his colleagues studied the processes occurring in brain cells during a stroke, trying to find a way to prolong their lives. Scientists have noticed that some areas of the brain, including the "memory center" – the hippocampus, suffer much less from lack of access to oxygen than its other tissues. So, most of the nerve cells in the brain die in the first minutes after the onset of a stroke, and the neurons in the hippocampus continue to live for several tens of minutes.

The authors of the article tried to find the reason for this resistance of hippocampal cells by tracing changes in the chemical composition of neurons at the onset of stroke. It turned out that moments after the termination of access to oxygen and nutrients, cells begin to secrete a large amount of hamartin protein, which is usually used by the body to protect the brain from the development of cancerous tumors.

In the case of stroke, gamartin acts differently: its increased concentration causes cells to break down fragments of proteins and "eat" unnecessary parts of cells, extracting energy from them. Apparently, this process helps them survive a stroke – the neurons of mice with the "disabled" gene responsible for the production of hamartin died much faster than the nerve cells of normal rodents.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru25.02.2013