I would like to learn how to turn on these genes…
Genes that allow lampreys to repair damaged spinal cord have also been found in humans
Ksenia Malysheva, Naked Science
A group of American geneticists has established which genes are responsible for the functional restoration of the severed spinal cord in lampreys, and found analogues of these genes in human DNA. The discovery may help to find new targets for the treatment of spinal injuries in humans.
In mammals, spinal cord injury with spinal cord rupture means loss of motor functions, and sometimes complete paralysis. Some other vertebrates were more fortunate: in lampreys (Petromyzontiformes), for example, a broken spine spontaneously fuses, and the neurons passing through it reconnect with each other; as a result, the fish regains lost mobility.
Researchers from several American universities decided to find out which proteins help restore the damaged spine of the lamprey and which genes encode these proteins. Scientists expected that similar genes would be found in humans: despite the fact that the common ancestor of humans and lampreys lived 550 million years ago, we have very similar nervous systems with the fishes of the order Petromyzontiformes.
Scientists broke the backs of fish and during the recovery period (12 weeks) took tissue samples around the injury site and in the brain of fish, and then sequenced RNA, determining which genes are expressed in the cells of the lamprey body during tissue regeneration.
It turned out that the injury activated a number of genes that are usually inactive in the neurons of the brain and in the cells of the spinal cord. Among them were genes encoding the same proteins that are responsible for restoring neurons of the peripheral nervous system in mammals (Atf3, Jun), as well as genes regulating the growth of axons and connective tissue.
Some of the genes "switched on" by back injury encode proteins of the Wnt signaling pathway that regulates embryonic development and differentiation of stem cells. By introducing an inhibitor of the Wnt signaling pathway into the blood of lampreys, scientists slowed down the regeneration of the spinal cord and confirmed that this signaling pathway is especially important for the restoration of severed nerve cells. The Wnt signaling pathway in lampreys and humans is almost the same – this allows us to hope that by studying regeneration in lampreys, scientists will be able to offer new methods of treating spinal cord injuries in humans.
The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports (Herman et al., Highly conserved molecular pathways, including Wnt signaling, promote functional recovery from spinal cord injury in lampreys).
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