| Stroke is a devastating and irreversible disease. One proposed method to reverse the effects of this disease is to enhance new projections extending from neurons on the undamaged side of the brain to the denervated areas by blocking neurite growth inhibitors (NGIs) including myelin-associated glycoprotein, Nogo-A, tenascin-R and oligodendrocyte myelin-associated glycoprotein. They serve as natural impediments to neurite growth in response to injury. In a previous study, the collaborators has created a recombinant pcDNA3.1 (+) vaccine coding for NGIs and showed that the pcDNA - NGIs vaccination can compensate neuroanatomical plasticity and enhance functional recovery after overhemisection of spinal cord without any adverse effects. In this study, to further explore the prophylactic and therapeutic effect of such vaccination on ischemic stroke, I immunized adult male Sprague-Dawley rats ranging in age from 45 ~ 90 d and in weight from 200 ~ 250 gm with pcDNA - NGIs before or after permanent focal cerebral ischemia induced by occluding the middle cerebral artery. Following pcDNA - NGIs vaccination, the stroke rats demonstrated functional recovery on several behavioural measures (p<0.05) paralleled with neurons on the uninjured side of the brain extending new projections to denervated areas of the midbrain (p<0.01). The result increases the possibility of novel axon regeneration therapies, DNA vaccination, for stroke and possibly, other neurological diseases.
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