Biogen Idec Identifies Molecule That May Be Key to CNS Repair, Regeneration

Scientists at Biogen Idec have identified a molecule in the central nervous system (CNS) that may play a pivotal role in CNS repair and regeneration.

The research, to be published in the June 2005 edition of Nature Neuroscience, is the first to suggest a role for LINGO-1 in nerve repair and could lead to potential pathways for treating multiple sclerosis (MS) and other demyelinating diseases, the company said.

MS is a chronic disease of the CNS in which the body's own immune cells break down myelin, a fatty substance that typically surrounds nerve cells like the insulation around a wire. Without myelin, nerves lose the ability to conduct electrical impulses and eventually die. Current MS therapies can slow the progression of the disease, but none are able to repair the damage that the immune system inflicts on myelin. Although the CNS cells that typically wrap nerves in myelin are present in MS patients, they fail to restore the missing myelin sheath following an immune system attack.

The new research reported by Biogen Idec scientists indicates that LINGO-1 appears to be a molecular switch that controls the ability of these CNS cells to myelinate. The Biogen Idec team discovered that LINGO-1 normally acts to prevent myelination and that the normal function of LINGO-1 could be blocked in laboratory tissue culture. In experiments, researchers were able to induce CNS cells to generate large quantities of myelin by blocking LINGO-1 and, for the first time in a laboratory setting, to wrap it correctly around nerves.