Advances to curing Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Lou Gehrig’s (old article)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1225290.htm

Another old medical article detailing advances in studies on mice. From the site:

The researchers’ goal is not to create a therapy that would kill neurons in order to activate the birth of new ones. Rather, they hope experiments like this one, which appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online, will lead to new ways to grow neurons. Researchers could eventually identify key molecules involved with neuron birth and translate them into drugs, said Jeffrey Macklis, a researcher at Harvard Medical School who led the study.

“(The neurons) developed into mature neurons that not only took up proper locations within the brain, but reconnected to the spinal cord,” Macklis said.

The newborn neurons took the place of many damaged neurons in the mice. The work could be a model for neuron replacement in spinal cord injury or diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s. And such a therapy would avoid any immune or other complications that might result from stem-cell transplantation.