all Larry Benowitz stories

HMS researchers isolate nerve growth compound

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:55:20 -0400

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston have isolated a molecule that stimulates the regrowth of damaged adult nerve fibers, providing new hope for those suffering from nerve damage and from neurodegenerative diseases.

Adult nerve fibers in the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerve - all parts of the central nervous system - are notoriously difficult to repair once damaged. In extreme cases, such as spinal cord injury, such damage can be responsible for devastating paralysis.

Led by Associate Professor of Neurosurgery Larry Benowitz, researchers identified a mysterious protein whose effects were first noticed seven years ago when injured optic nerves spontaneously began to regenerate in some of their experimental animals.

Medical School researchers isolate nerve growth compound

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:27:43 -0400

One of several surprises in this work, Benowitz said, is that the protein, oncomodulin, does not belong to any known family of growth factors, but to an entirely different family of proteins.

It took time not only to identify oncomodulin, but also to figure out the right conditions for the molecule to be effective. Oncomodulin works best in the presence of two other molecules, and even better when substances known to inhibit adult nerve growth are neutralized. So far, oncomodulin has been proven to work on retinal ganglion cells - which connect the eye to the parts of the brain responsible for processing visual signals - and at least one other type of nerve cell.

The research was reported in the May 14, 2006 online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Investigators discover method to stimulate brain rewiring after stroke

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:20:59 -0400

After a stroke, brain cells die and their connections to other parts of the brain are lost. In a study with rats conducted at Children's Hospital in Boston, a naturally occurring substance called inosine was shown to stimulate nerve cells in undamaged parts of the brain to grow new connections into brain areas that had lost their normal connections as a result of a stroke. This "rewiring" partially compensated for the loss of the original connections, and resulted in significant improvement in several types of behavior compared to rats that did not receive inosine. As yet, there are no clinically approved methods to enhance brain rewiring. The investigators are hopeful that inosine may prove to be one such method.