TSU developed a way to monitor the migration of young neurons
TSU neuroscientists and colleagues from Belgium and the USA have created a non invasive tool to track the movement of young neurons. To do this, scientists mark new brain cells with a special marker that can be seen on MRT (magnetic resonance tomography). Viral vectors - inactivated viruses that can easily enter the cell, act as delivery couriers of markers. The new tool, created with the support of the Russian Science Foundation, will help to predict the dynamics of patient recovery and assess the pace of rehabilitation after stroke and traumatic brain injury.
- It is known that after a stroke, in special zones of neurogenesis, there is an active production of young neurons. They migrate to the affected area to replace the dead neurons, - explains Marina Khodanovich, head of the Laboratory of Neurobiology at the TSU Biological Institute. - But before there were methods to track these cells in a living brain, this could only be understood postmortem. To see how young neurons travel, we and colleagues from the University of Leuven (Belgium) - Irina Thiry and Veronique Daniels - designed special vectors based on lentiviruses and adenoassociated viruses. Genetic engineers extracted a pathogenic component from them and inserted a gene that increases the production of ferritin, and also a special genetic sequence (promoter), thanks to which the production of ferritin will increase only in young neurons. Young neurons store ferritin, and therefore iron, which makes them visible.
Read more: http://en.tsu.ru/news/tsu-developed-a-way-to-monitor-the-migration-of-young-neurons/
