BioCentury
ARTICLE | Cover Story

New strategies for CNS regeneration

December 4, 2008 8:00 AM UTC

Two separate teams of company and university researchers have identified multiple neuronal proteins that could be targeted alone or in combination to promote axon growth and treat spinal cord injury and other forms of CNS trauma.1,2 The findings could overcome a fundamental obstacle facing efforts to improve neuronal function after injury-the inability of the adult CNS to regenerate.

In one of the two Science papers, researchers at Genentech Inc. and Stanford University reported finding a potential master sensor of extracellular growth inhibition signals that could be targeted to help injured neurons regenerate in adults. The California group focused on blocking interactions between neurons and extracellular myelin-derived growth inhibitory factors (see Figure 1, "Overcoming growth inhibition")...