RespiteMatch.com Health Blog

By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
A team of South Korean scientists has uncovered the mechanism of neural stem cell death, a discovery expected to help treat such degenerative diseases as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

The team, headed by Prof. Kang Kyung-sun of Seoul National University, Monday said they pinpointed a gene responsible for deactivating the differentiation or renewal of neural stem cells.

“We found that a protein, called p38, suppresses the growth of neural stem cells. We confirmed through mice experiments that we can revive dying neural stem cells by inhibiting the protein,’’ the 42-year-old Kang said.

Neural stem cells refer to multi-potent adult stem cells that are capable of renewing themselves and differentiating into neurons or other neural cells.

When the stem cells fail to supply enough new neurons to replace old ones, such degenerative diseases as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Niemann-Pick type C1 (NPC1) occur.

Kang’s team used NPC1 model mice whose neural stem cells showed impairment in their self-renewal ability due to overly activated p38. They found that the neural stem cells of mice recover by inhibiting the protein.

“Up until now, scientists have just tried injecting neural stem cells into patients to grapple with hard-to-cure diseases like dementia,’’ Kang said.

“However, this is the first time that researchers found an enzyme that can regulate neural stem cells themselves. We will be able to find a new type of therapy for neuro-degenerative diseases by reviving dying stem cells.’’

Scientists discovered genes that control blood stem cells, but Kang was faster than others in finding a gene that modulates neural stem cells.

Kang expected NPC1 sufferers would be the first recipients for actual clinical applications of the new found mechanism.

NPC1, which entails such symptoms as increased muscle tone, severe liver disease, breathing difficulties, developmental delay and seizures, occurs in about 1 in 100,000 people.

“After studying NPC1, we plan to shift the focus of our research to more common neuro-degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. We will be able to make advances with such diseases because their mechanism is analogous to that of NPC1,’’ Kang said.

Kang’s team hooked up with a private local company to make commercial use of the technology and already applied for international and domestic patents for their findings.

The medical breakthrough will be featured in the next edition of the Stem Cells, the U.S.-based peer-reviewed journal.

voc200@koreatimes.co.kr

08-22-2005 17: