brain injury
Gene Therapy Shows Promise Repairing Brain Tissue Damaged by Stroke
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
It’s a race against time when someone suffers a stroke caused by a blockage of a blood vessel supplying the brain. Unless clot-busting treatment is given within a few hours after symptoms appear, vast numbers of the brain’s neurons die, often leading to paralysis or other disabilities. It would be great to have a way to replace those lost neurons. Thanks to gene therapy, some encouraging strides are now being made.
In a recent study in Molecular Therapy, researchers reported that, in their mouse and rat models of ischemic stroke, gene therapy could actually convert the brain’s support cells into new, fully functional neurons [1]. Even better, after gaining the new neurons, the animals had improved motor and memory skills.
For the team led by Gong Chen, Penn State, University Park, the quest to replace lost neurons in the brain began about a decade ago. While searching for the right approach, Chen noticed other groups had learned to reprogram fibroblasts into stem cells and make replacement neural cells.
As innovative as this work was at the time, it was performed mostly in lab Petri dishes. Chen and his colleagues thought, why not reprogram cells already in the brain?
They turned their attention to the brain’s billions of supportive glial cells. Unlike neurons, glial cells divide and replicate. They also are known to survive and activate following a brain injury, remaining at the wound and ultimately forming a scar. This same process had also been observed in the brain following many types of injury, including stroke and neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
To Chen’s NIH-supported team, it looked like glial cells might be a perfect target for gene therapies to replace lost neurons. As reported about five years ago, the researchers were on the right track [2].
The Chen team showed it was possible to reprogram glial cells in the brain into functional neurons. They succeeded using a genetically engineered retrovirus that delivered a single protein called NeuroD1. It’s a neural transcription factor that switches genes on and off in neural cells and helps to determine their cell fate. The newly generated neurons were also capable of integrating into brain circuits to repair damaged tissue.
There was one major hitch: the NeuroD1 retroviral vector only reprogrammed actively dividing glial cells. That suggested their strategy likely couldn’t generate the large numbers of new cells needed to repair damaged brain tissue following a stroke.
Fast-forward a couple of years, and improved adeno-associated viral vectors (AAV) have emerged as a major alternative to retroviruses for gene therapy applications. This was exactly the breakthrough that the Chen team needed. The AAVs can reprogram glial cells whether they are dividing or not.
In the new study, Chen’s team, led by post-doc Yu-Chen Chen, put this new gene therapy system to work, and the results are quite remarkable. In a mouse model of ischemic stroke, the researchers showed the treatment could regenerate about a third of the total lost neurons by preferentially targeting reactive, scar-forming glial cells. The conversion of those reactive glial cells into neurons also protected another third of the neurons from injury.
Studies in brain slices showed that the replacement neurons were fully functional and appeared to have made the needed neural connections in the brain. Importantly, their studies also showed that the NeuroD1 gene therapy led to marked improvements in the functional recovery of the mice after a stroke.
In fact, several tests of their ability to make fine movements with their forelimbs showed about a 60 percent improvement within 20 to 60 days of receiving the NeuroD1 therapy. Together with study collaborator and NIH grantee Gregory Quirk, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, they went on to show similar improvements in the ability of rats to recover from stroke-related deficits in memory.
While further study is needed, the findings in rodents offer encouraging evidence that treatments to repair the brain after a stroke or other injury may be on the horizon. In the meantime, the best strategy for limiting the number of neurons lost due to stroke is to recognize the signs and get to a well-equipped hospital or call 911 right away if you or a loved one experience them. Those signs include: sudden numbness or weakness of one side of the body; confusion; difficulty speaking, seeing, or walking; and a sudden, severe headache with unknown causes. Getting treatment for this kind of “brain attack” within four hours of the onset of symptoms can make all the difference in recovery.
References:
[1] A NeuroD1 AAV-Based gene therapy for functional brain repair after ischemic injury through in vivo astrocyte-to-neuron conversion. Chen Y-C et al. Molecular Therapy. Published online September 6, 2019.
[2] In vivo direct reprogramming of reactive glial cells into functional neurons after brain injury and in an Alzheimer’s disease model. Guo Z, Zhang L, Wu Z, Chen Y, Wang F, Chen G. Cell Stem Cell. 2014 Feb 6;14(2):188-202.
Links:
Stroke (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute/NIH)
Gene Therapy (National Human Genome Research Institute/NIH)
Chen Lab (Penn State, University Park)
NIH Support: National Institute on Aging; National Institute of Mental Health
The Amazing Brain: Deep Brain Stimulation
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
August is here, and many folks have plans to enjoy a well-deserved vacation this month. I thought you might enjoy taking a closer look during August at the wonder and beauty of the brain here on my blog, even while giving your own brains a rest from some of the usual work and deadlines.
Some of the best imagery—and best science—comes from the NIH-led Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative, a pioneering project aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. Recently, the BRAIN Initiative held a “Show Us Your Brain Contest!”, which invited researchers involved in the effort to submit their coolest images. So, throughout this month, I’ve decided to showcase a few of these award-winning visuals.
Let’s start with the first-place winner in the still-image category. What you see above is an artistic rendering of deep brain stimulation (DBS), an approach now under clinical investigation to treat cognitive impairment that can arise after a traumatic brain injury and other conditions.
The vertical lines represent wire leads with a single electrode that has been inserted deep within the brain to reach a region involved in cognition, the central thalamus. The leads are connected to a pacemaker-like device that has been implanted in a patient’s chest (not shown). When prompted by the pacemaker, the leads’ electrode emits electrical impulses that stimulate a network of neuronal fibers (blue-white streaks) involved in arousal, which is an essential component of human consciousness. The hope is that DBS will improve attention and reduce fatigue in people with serious brain injuries that are not treatable by other means.
Andrew Janson, who is a graduate student in Christopher Butson’s NIH-supported lab at the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, composed this image using a software program called Blender. It’s an open-source, 3D computer graphics program often used to create animated films or video games, but not typically used in biomedical research. That didn’t stop Janson.
With the consent of a woman preparing to undergo experimental DBS treatment for a serious brain injury suffered years before in a car accident, Janson used Blender to transform her clinical brain scans into a 3D representation of her brain and the neurostimulation process. Then, he used a virtual “camera” within Blender to capture the 2D rendering you see here. Janson plans to use such imagery, along with other patient-specific modeling and bioelectric fields simulations, to develop a virtual brain stimulation surgery to predict the activation of specific fiber pathways, depending upon lead location and stimulation settings.
DBS has been used for many years to relieve motor symptoms of certain movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. More recent experimental applications include this one for traumatic brain injury, and others for depression, addiction, Alzheimer’s disease, and chronic pain. As the BRAIN Initiative continues to map out the brain’s complex workings in unprecedented detail, it will be exciting to see how such information can lead to even more effective applications of to DBS to help people living with a wide range of neurological conditions.
Links:
Deep Brain Stimulation for Movement Disorders (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke/NIH)
Video: Deep Brain Stimulation (University of Utah, Salt Lake City)
Deep Brain Stimulation for the Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease and Other Movement Disorders (NINDS/NIH)
Butson Lab (University of Utah)
Show Us Your Brain! (BRAIN Initiative/NIH)
Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative (NIH)
NIH Support: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Robotic Exoskeleton Could Be Right Step Forward for Kids with Cerebral Palsy
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
More than 17 million people around the world are living with cerebral palsy, a movement disorder that occurs when motor areas of a child’s brain do not develop correctly or are damaged early in life. Many of those affected were born extremely prematurely and suffered brain hemorrhages shortly after birth. One of the condition’s most common symptoms is crouch gait, which is an excessive bending of the knees that can make it difficult or even impossible to walk. Now, a new robotic device developed by an NIH research team has the potential to help kids with cerebral palsy walk better.
What’s really cool about the robotic brace, or exoskeleton, which you see demonstrated above, is that it’s equipped with computerized sensors and motors that can detect exactly where a child is in the walking cycle—delivering bursts of support to the knees at just the right time. In fact, in a small study of seven young people with crouch gait, the device enabled six to stand and walk taller in their very first practice session!
