Whom is updating the stroke strategy to put this into the right place and schedule followup research?
http://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2015-03-team-key-neurons-stem-cells.html?
A research team at UC San Francisco has discovered an RNA
molecule called Pnky that can be manipulated to increase the production
of neurons from neural stem cells.
The research, led by neurosurgeon Daniel A. Lim, MD, PhD, and published on March 19, 2015 in Cell Stem Cell,
has possible applications in regenerative medicine, including
treatments of such disorders as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease
and traumatic brain injury, and in cancer treatment.
Pnky is one of a number of newly discovered long noncoding RNAs
(lncRNAs), which are stretches of 200 or more nucleotides in the human
genome that do not code for proteins, yet seem to have a biological
function.
The name, pronounced "Pinky," was inspired by the popular American
cartoon series Pinky and the Brain. "Pnky is encoded near a gene called
'Brain,' so it sort of suggested itself to the students in my
laboratory," said Lim. Pnky also appears only to be found in the brain,
he noted.
Co-first authors Alex Ramos, PhD, and Rebecca Andersen, who are students in Lim's laboratory, first studied Pnky in neural stem cells
found in mouse brains, and also identified the molecule in neural stem
cells of the developing human brain. They found that when Pnky was
removed from stem cells in a process called knockdown, neuron production
increased three to four times.
"It is remarkable that when you take Pnky away, the stem cells
produce many more neurons," said Lim, an assistant professor of
neurological surgery and director of restorative surgery at UCSF. "These
findings suggest that Pnky, and perhaps lncRNAs in general, could
eventually have important applications in regenerative medicine and cancer treatment."
Lim observed that Pnky has an intriguing possible connection with brain tumors.
Using an analytical technique called mass spectrometry, Ramos found
that Pnky binds the protein PTBP1, which is also found in brain tumors
and is known to be a driver of brain tumor growth. In neural stem cells,
Pnky and PTBP1 appear to function together to suppress the production
of neurons. "Take away one or the other and the stem cells
differentiate, making more neurons," said Lim. "It is also possible
that Pnky can regulate brain tumor growth, which means we may have
identified a target for the treatment of brain tumors."
Lim said that the larger significance of the research is that it
adds to a growing store of knowledge about lncRNAs, previously unknown
sections of the genome that some biologists have referred to as the
"dark matter" of the human genome.
"Recently, over fifty thousand human lncRNAs have been discovered.
Thus, there may be more human lncRNAs than there are genes that code for
proteins," said Lim. "It is possible that not all lncRNAs have
important biological functions, but we are making a start toward
learning which ones do, and if so, how they function. It's a new world
of experimental biology, and the students in my lab are right there on
the frontier."
Lim had particular praise for Ramos, an MD-PhD student in the UCSF
Medical Scientist Training Program, and Andersen, who has a fellowship
from the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research
Fellowship Program. "They have been a great collaborative team and an
inspiration to others in my lab," said Lim. "I think they represent the
pioneering, investigative spirit of the UCSF student body."
Provided by University of California, San Francisco
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