It is possible stimulate the brain to produce New neurons For repair the brain circuits damaged by Neurodegenerative diseases Like Huntington’s disease. This is demonstrated by the studio on mice, published in the magazine Cell Reports from the Medical Center of the University of Rochester in the United States.
Although for a long time it has been thought that the adult brain was unable to regenerate, today we know which actually preserves some niches containing progenitor cells able to produce New neurons: Generally they do it in the very first phases of development, while immediately after birth they go to produce support cells, the so -called Gliali cells. The niches of progenitor cells are found Neighbor to a region of the brain, it stripedwhich is severely damaged by Huntington’s disease, a neurodegenerative pathology of genetic origin that affects muscle coordination.
Previous studies on mice and primates had already shown that two proteins, Bdnf and Nogginsucceed in awaken these progenitors In the brain to induce them to migrate to the strut and differentiate in spiny medium neurons, the most affected by Huntington’s disease.
There new researchconduct on miceshows for the first time that i new neurons connect with complexes brain circuits that control i movementsreplacing the function of the neurons affected by neurodegeneration.
“In this work we used a combination of electrophysiology, optogenetics and study of animal behavior To demonstrate that these cells are not only produced in the adult brain, but they functionally restore motor circuitsboth in healthy and Huntington’s diseases “, observes the first author of the study, Jose Cano, who works in the Steve Goldman laboratory, among the first in the eighties to discover neurogenesis in the adult brain.
The results of the study suggest a New strategy against Huntington’s diseasewhich consists in inducing the brain to replace the sick neurons with other new ones by restoring the movement circuits. “Considering the persistence of these progenitor cells in the brain of adult primates – adds the neurologist Abdellatif Benraiss – these results suggest the potential of this regenerative approach as a treatment strategy for Huntington and other disorders characterized by the loss of neurons in the striped”.
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