Blog – Page 100

Peripheral nerve injuries, often caused by traumatic events such as car accidents, falls or battlefield injuries, can leave patients with long-term weakness, numbness or loss of function. Despite surgery and advances in understanding and treating nerve injuries, many patients don’t get all their movement or feeling back.

Researchers at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and College of Engineering developed a new way to improve healing after severe nerve injuries by helping the body grow new blood vessels where the nerve is repairing itself. The new approach combines nerve graft surgery with tissue nanotransfection (TNT), a novel non-viral gene therapy developed at The Ohio State University.

Scientists used TNT to deliver three specific genes (Etv2, Fli1 and Foxc2) that tell cells to help form new blood vessels. These genes were applied via a very quick electrical pulse to nerve grafts used during surgery in mice with severe nerve injuries.

However, research is increasingly showing that these so-called synonymous codons are not truly equal. Some codons make mRNA molecules more stable and easier for cells to translate into proteins, making them more efficient. Others, considered non-optimal, lead to weaker translation and are more likely to be broken down. Until now, scientists have not fully understood how human cells recognize and respond to these less efficient codons.

Scientists Search for the Cell’s “Quality Control” System

To investigate this question, a research team from Kyoto University and RIKEN, led by Osamu Takeuchi and Takuhiro Ito, carried out a series of experiments aimed at uncovering how cells handle codon efficiency.

This study shows that a TRUE-MOGAD score of 2 or more accurately predicts MOGAD in patients with MOG-IgG titers of 1:20 or higher using the described assay. Read more.

Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antibodies (MOG-IgG) are a biomarker of MOG antibody-associated disease (MOGAD). However, false positives remain common. We aimed to develop a scoring tool to guide interpretation.