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[ScienceDaily -- Your link to the latest research news] [Spacer]
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Welcome! Posted 4/2/97
[Image]Go to our home
page to see Institution: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
what's new. Contact: Beth Palevich, Public Information Officer
E-mail: bpalevic at welchlink.welch.jhu.edu
[Image]Visit our Phone: (410)955-4288
sources on the
web. New Variations On Old Drugs Promote Nerve
Regeneratio=
n
[Image]Check out our
awards and April 2, 1997
reviews.
[Image]Learn more Researchers at Johns Hopkins and Guilford
about Pharmaceuticals Inc., have successfully modified a
ScienceDailygroup of established drugs to stimulate nerve
growth
without suppressing the immune system.
Science News The researchers say the development is a critical
ste=
p
[Image]Scan toward using the new compounds as treatments for a
wi=
de
today's range of neurodegenerative diseases like
Parkinson's
news disease or multiple sclerosis, or brain injuries
from
summaries. stroke or head trauma.
[Image]Browse this
week's "We showed that these compounds can cause recovery
of
headlines. functions and behaviors previously lost to nerve
dama=
ge
in lab animals," says Solomon Snyder, M.D.,
Hopkins
[Image]View the director of neuroscience and principal author on
the
latest paper, which appears in this month's Nature
Medicine.
stories by
topic. "We believe this is the first demonstration
through a=
n
[Image]Search our orally administered treatment of a significant
archives by regenerative effect on nerve cells without
suppressio=
n
keyword. of the immune system."
[Image]Subscribe Immunosuppressive drugs like cyclosporin A and
to receive rapamycin were originally developed to prevent a
free e-mail patient's immune system from rejecting an organ
updates. transplant. When researchers looked for the
compounds
immunosuppressive drugs bind to in the body, they
fou=
nd
Cool Sites a group of proteins called immunophilins.
[Image]Read
descriptions"These are proteins frequently used by the cell
for
of new what we call signal transduction," explains
Snyder.
featured "They bind to something outside the cell, and as a
sites. result of that binding cause changes inside the
cell--make it less likely that an immune cell will
[Image]Explore otheproliferate, for example."
online
science Hopkins scientists discovered that brain cells
have 1=
0
media. to 50 times more immunophilins than immune cells
and
[Image]See our that immunophilins in the brain are linked to a
varie=
ty
collection oof important nerve cell functions, including the
sites by ability to regenerate lost branches of the cell
and
topic. generate new branches.
[Image]Submit a cool
site Immunosuppressive drugs bind to immunophilins;
suggestion. together, the two interact with a protein called
calcineurin to suppress the immune system.
Researcher=
s
at Hopkins and Guilford, using new techniques from
Contributing molecular biology and a field called combinatorial
[Image]Register chemistry, attached chemical structures to the
drugs
your that prevented them from binding to calcineurin
but d=
id
institution not affect their ability to attach to
immunophilins.
for free. [Image]
[Image]Post your Scientists at Hopkins and Guilford put the new
drugs =
to
news the test alongside the original immunosuppressive
releases drugs, first in studies of chicken nerve cells in
the
here. lab, and later in rats whose sciatic nerve had
been
crushed. There was no significant difference in
the n=
ew
[Image]Change your drugs' ability to stimulate growth of new nerve
cell
contributor branches and cause regeneration of lost branches.
profile.
[Image]Review your "The new drugs were even able to regenerate the
readership protective myelin sheath surrounding the branch,
whic=
h
stats. is critical to recovery of function," says Snyder.
Advertising Representatives from Guilford hope to begin
clinical
(under trials of some of the new drugs in a year or more.
construction) Guilford is a private biopharmaceutical company
based
in Baltimore.
[Image]Join our
free scienceUnder an agreement between Johns Hopkins
University a=
nd
link Guilford, Snyder and Ted Dawson, M.D., Ph.D.,
another
network. Hopkins author on the Nature Medicine paper, are
[Image]Support our entitled to a share of royalties received by the
network and University from Guilford. The University owns
stock i=
n
get ad Guilford, with Snyder and Dawson having an
interest i=
n
credits. the University share under University policy.
Snyder
[Image]Be a sponsorserves on the Board of Directors and the
Scientific
and reach Advisory Board of Guilford, is a consultant to the
thousands. company, and owns additional equity in Guilford.
This
arrangement is being managed by the Johns Hopkins
[Image]Change your University in accordance with its conflict of
interes=
t
advertiser policies.
profile.
[Image]Review your Other authors on the Nature Medicine paper were
Josep=
h
advertising Steiner, Maureen Connolly, Greg Hamilton and
Heather
results. Valentine, of Guilford; and, Ted Dawson, and Lynda
Hester of Hopkins. The studies were funded by
Guilfor=
d
and the National Institutes of Health.
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