A new way of targeting to treat nerve injury

Although neurons within the peripheral nervous system have a remarkable ability to repair themselves after injury, neurons within the central nervous system do not spontaneously regenerate. This problem has remained recalcitrant despite a century of research on the reaction of axons to injury. The balance between inhibitory cues present in the environment and the intrinsic growth capacity of the injured neuron determines the extent of axonal regeneration following injury. The cell body of an injured neuron must receive accurate and timely information about the site and extent of axonal damage in order to increase its intrinsic growth capacity and regenerate successfully. One of the mechanisms contributing to this process is retrograde transport of injury signals. For example, molecules activated at the injury site convey information to the cell body leading to the expression of regeneration-associated genes and increased growth capacity of the neuron. In this paper, we are introducing therapeutic agents to treat brain injury and peripheral nerve injury. Since glial cell adhesion molecule is upregulated in gliotic scar, it is possible to target therapeutic agents to the site of brain injury. This directed therapy presents an innovative and promising therapy.