BioCentury
ARTICLE | Cover Story

Working on the brain gang(lioside)

March 8, 2012 8:00 AM UTC

Canadian researchers have found that injecting ganglioside GM1, a naturally occurring lipid, into the brains of mice with Huntington's disease improves motor function and slows disease progression.1 The team is in talks with an undisclosed company to license the findings.

Ganglioside GM1 (GM1) is a complex, polysaccharide-bearing lipid that helps hold together lipid rafts, which are dense regions of the plasma membrane that harbor many membrane-associated proteins. The lipid plays a role in neuron differentiation, neurite extension and axon growth during brain development. In mature brains GM1 also modulates multiple signaling mechanisms involved in synaptic functioning...