How Keeping Axons Alive May Benefit Neuropathy Patients

Today's post from futurity.org (see link below) tries to explain the new findings regarding the death of nerve cells and nerve axons and how this may eventually lead to significantly better treatments for neuropathy patients. Another post here a few days ago (scroll down to May 3rd) announced the results of this research but as with many articles like this, many people might have found it difficult to follow. This article takes care to explain the science in words we can all understand and for that reason deserves a gold star from this blog. Worth a read - they may be onto something here.

Can saving axons keep nerves alive?
Washington University in St. Louis rightOriginal Study Posted by Caroline Arbanas-WUSTL on May 5, 2015

You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license.

New research highlights how nerves—whether harmed by disease or traumatic injury—start to die.

The discovery unveils new targets for developing drugs to slow or halt peripheral neuropathies and devastating neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Peripheral neuropathy damages nerves in the body’s extremities and can cause unrelenting pain, stinging, burning, itching, and sensitivity to touch. The condition is commonly associated with diabetes or develops as a side effect of chemotherapy.

Nerve cells talk to each other by transmitting signals along communication cables called axons. Such signals underlie vital activities, such as thinking and memory, movement, and language.

As part of a study published in Science, the researchers showed they could prevent axons from dying, a finding that suggests therapies could be developed to counteract the withering away of nerve axons.

“We have uncovered new details that let us piece together a major pathway involved in axon degeneration,” says senior author Jeffrey Milbrandt, professor in, and head of, the genetics department at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

“This is an important step forward and helps to identify new therapeutic targets. That we were able to block axon degeneration in the lab also gives us hope that drugs could be developed to treat patients suffering from a variety of neurological conditions.” 

Energy supply

A common thread among many neurological disorders and traumatic nerve injuries is the degeneration of axons, which interrupts nerve signaling and prevents nerves from communicating with one another. Axon degeneration is thought to be an initiating event in many of these disorders. In fact, an unhealthy axon is known to trigger its own death, and researchers are keenly interested in understanding how this happens.

Working in cell cultures, fruit flies, and mice, Milbrandt and coauthor Aaron DiAntonio, professor of developmental biology, and their colleagues showed that a protein already known to be involved in axon degeneration acts like a switch to trigger axon degeneration after an injury.

Moreover, they found that this protein, once unleashed, causes a rapid decline in the energy supply within axons. Within minutes after the protein—called SARM1—is activated in neurons, a massive loss of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), a chemical central to a cell’s energy production, occurs within the axon.

“When a nerve is diseased or injured, SARM1 becomes more active, initiating a series of events that quickly causes an energetic catastrophe within the axon, and the axon undergoes self-destruction,” says first author Josiah Gerdts, an MD/PhD student in Milbrandt’s laboratory.
Keeping axons alive

Working in neurons in which SARM1 was activated, the researchers showed they could completely block axon degeneration and neuron cell death by supplementing the cells with a precursor to NAD, a chemical called nicotinamide riboside. The neurons were able to use nicotinamide riboside to keep the axons energized and healthy.

Nicotinamide riboside has been linked in animal studies to good health and longevity, but its benefits have not been shown in people. The researchers say much more research is needed to know whether the chemical could slow or halt axon degeneration in the body.

“We are encouraged by the findings and think that identifying a class of drugs that block SARM1 activity has therapeutic potential in neurological disorders,” Milbrandt says. “The molecular details this pathway provides give us a number of therapeutic avenues to attack.”

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals supported the work.

Source: Washington University in St. Louis 

http://www.futurity.org/nerves-neuropathy-axons-914382/