Stumbled over this article about nerve cell regeneration while I was surfin' around the net. As I understand it, "turning on" nerve growth factors is exactly what Neotrofin does. "Potentially revolutionary" is Dr. Thies' term.
New Research Shows Human Brains Make New Cells
Potential Field for Alzheimer Therapies
CHICAGO – Newly published research shatters long-held beliefs that the brain cannot regenerate and repair itself, and may create a new avenue for therapies for diseases that erode the brain, according to the Alzheimer's Association.
"This study may open the door to an exciting new line of research, with the potential for developing treatments that may help all neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's, though that would likely be many years in the future," said William Thies, Ph.D., association vice president for medical and scientific affairs. "It is potentially revolutionary."
Researchers studied five cancer patients who received an injection of a chemical, known as bromodeoxyuridine or BrdU, for diagnostic purposes. The chemical attaches to DNA in dividing cells. By identifying BrdU in the brain tissue of the subjects, the scientists demonstrated that new brain cells were being generated from the division of other cells. The new cells were found in a brain region linked to memory that has been shown to grow new cells in other mammals and lower primates.
Current thinking is that dying nerve cells cannot be replaced, because the adult human brain does not generate neurons. This theory may need reevaluation, according to the association.
"There is still a question about whether we can learn enough about how regeneration of brain cells works to turn it off and on when we need to," Thies said.
The study, "Neurogenesis in the Adult Human Hippocampus," by Fred Gage, Ph.D., of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, Calif., and colleagues appears in the November 1998 issue of Nature Medicine. The study was funded, in part, by the Alzheimer's Association.
October 29, 1998
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