In the mood for regeneration
Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have found that lithium, the marketed mood stabilizer, might have utility in spinal cord injury, an indication for which there are no approved drugs.1 In a paper in The Journal of Neuroscience, the group showed that lithium promoted axonal growth in rat models of SCI. Other researchers next want to see more preclinical work to better elucidate the mechanism of lithium in SCI.
Injury to the spinal cord results in damaged neurons, glial cells, blood vessels and meninges. Moreover, cellular debris at the injury site contains numerous molecules that potentially inhibit regrowth of neurons. When these molecules bind to receptors on the surface of damaged neurons, they trigger an intracellular pathway-the ras homolog gene family, member A (RhoA)-Rho-associated, coiled-coil containing protein kinase (ROCK) pathway-that irreversibly inhibits neurite sprouting and regeneration (see "Blocking growth inhibition in spinal cord injury").2,3...