Each year, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), millions of people in the U.S. are affected by spinal cord and traumatic brain Injuries, along with neuro-developmental and -degenerative diseases such as ADHD, autism, cerebral palsy, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and Parkinson's disease.
Assistant professor Pabitra Sahoo, of Rutgers University–Newark's Department of Biological Sciences, has made it his life’s work to understand how our neurological system becomes damaged by these injuries and conditions, and when and how neurons in our central and peripheral nervous systems regenerate and heal.
Recently, Sahoo and his RU-N research team made a breakthrough, using a peptide (or small protein fragment) to help nerve cells in both the peripheral and central nervous systems regenerate. They published their findings in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), one of the world's most-cited and comprehensive multidisciplinary scientific journals.
“We’re very excited about these latest results, which may be instrumental to the field, especially relating to central nervous system trauma,” said Sahoo.
The human neurological system is a complex network of cells, tissues and organs that controls and coordinates all bodily functions. It is composed of two main areas: the central nervous system (CNS), which consists of the brain, brain stem and spinal cord, and the peripheral nervous system (PNS), which extends from the CNS and includes all nerves that connect it to the rest of the body.
Combined, these two parts control a range of critical functions such as sensory perception, motor control, cognition, and learning and memory. This command center also helps with homeostasis, regulating things like body temperature and blood pressure, along with other involuntary functions such as breathing and digestion.
Each nerve cell, or neuron, has three parts: a cell body, which contains a nucleus, mitochondria and other organelles essential for cell function; a long tail called an axon, which transmits electrical and chemical signals away from the cell; and dendrites, branches of the neurological tree that receive messages for the cell. Neurons communicate with each other by sending chemicals, or neurotransmitters, across a tiny space called a synapse, between the axons and dendrites of nearby neurons.