HD Lighthouse Contributing Editor's Comment: Raising BDNF levels in the striatum continues to look like a promising treatment for HD. Researchers were able to produce neurogenesis in the brains of adult primates by injecting them with the gene for BDNF in an adenovirus vector. The result was the production of new neurons whose chemical makeup identify them as medium-spiny projection neurons. These are the cells which are lost in Huntington's disease.

This is important research because we know that BDNF levels are reduced with HD; increasing BDNF in the striatum would treat a major pathology of the disease. Further, BDNF is not just neuroprotective but has now been shown to cause neurogenesis. At some point, researchers will find a way to stop HD in its tracks, possibly with RNAi therapy. This will prevent the disease from developing in the presymptomatic but we will also want to have a mechanism for repair for those who are already sick. Stem cell therapy is likely years away; BDNF therapy may be a viable alternative which could be developed sooner. And finally, the research was done with primates so the results are more likely to be generalizable to people.
--Marsha L. Miller, Ph.D.
Posted to the HDL: 12 Dec 2005

Chemical characterization of newly generated neurons in the striatum of adult primates.

A. Bedard, C. Gravel, and A. Parent

We recently demonstrated the existence of neurogenesis in the striatum of adult monkeys, but the number of striatal neurons generated under normal conditions was too small to establish their chemical phenotype. We therefore used brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which promotes neuronal differentiation and survival and induces striatal neurogenesis in rodents, in an attempt to increase the number of newborn neurons in monkey striatum and facilitate their chemical characterization. An adenoviral vector (AdBDNF), encoding the human BDNF cDNA under the control of a strong promoter, was injected into the lateral ventricles (LVs) of adult squirrel monkeys, which were then treated with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU). Two weeks after viral injection, numerous BrdU-positive cells were found within the striatum and many expressed microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP-2) and neuronal nuclear protein (NeuN), two markers of mature neurons. Newborn neurons also expressed glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD(65/67)), calbindin (CB) and dopamine- and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein of 32 kDa (DARPP-32), three markers of striatal projection neurons. We found no BrdU-positive neurons displaying the phenotype of striatal interneurons. Numerous BrdU-positive cells located near the subventricular zone (SVZ) coexpressed the migrating neuroblast markers polysialylated neural cell adhesion (PSA-NCAM) and doublecortin (DCX), suggesting that precursor cells could migrate from LVs to striatal parenchyma and develop a neuronal phenotype once they reach the striatum. However, many pairs of BrdU-positive nuclei were observed in the striatal parenchyma, suggesting that newborn neurons could also arise from resident progenitor cells. The present study demonstrates that a single injection of AdBDNF increases the number of newborn neurons into adult primate striatum and that newborn striatal neurons exhibit the chemical phenotype of medium-spiny projection neurons, which are specifically targeted in Huntington's disease.

Tracked on the Lighthouse:
BDNF
neurogenesis

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Source: Experimental brain research 2005 Nov 23;:1-12

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