HealthWatch Update December 3, 2006

New Therapeutic Hope For Degenerative Disc Disease

Degeneration of the intervertebral disc, which is often called degenerative disc disease (DDD) of the spine, is a common disorder of the lower spine. But for some domestic mammals, the occurence of this disease is extremely rare. What does it mean? We have to examine them to understand ourselves. The main role belongs to the notochord cells. The notochord is a flexible, rod-shaped body found in embryos of all chordates. The findings:

Notochord cells secrete connective tissue growth factor (CTGF). CTGF gene expression was also found in cell cultures taken from the intervertebral discs of chondrodystrophic canines – dog breeds closer to humans in musculoskeletal terms. But the population of notochord cells was much larger in nonchondrodystrophic dogs. “Our results suggest that nonchondrodystrophic canines are protected against the development of degenerative disc disease because their discs contain an abundance of notochord cells that secrete a key anabolic factor, CTGF,” states the study’s senior author, Robert D. Inman, MD, Toronto Western Research Institute.

Gene silencing fights mad cow disease

Silencing the genes that produce prion proteins can dramatically slow the progression of mad cow disease, suggests a new study in mice.

Researchers say that the approach might one day work to treat human prion illnesses, such as variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (vCJD).

This method exploits messenger RNA (mRNA) sequences in the cell, which are responsible producing proteins by using the animal’s genetic code as an instruction list. RNAi relies on molecules that bind to mRNA sequences in the cell, thereby preventing the production of specific proteins.