很久以前，生物学家已知道周边神经(例如手与足的神经)在受伤后有时候会重生，但脊髓及脑内的神经则不会。目前，研究人员正寻找方法，以克服对神经生长的自然抑制，帮助脊髓受损者或中风患者康复。
20世纪九十年代末期，耶鲁大学神经生物学家斯特里马特区分出神经细胞保护层中的一种蛋白质，名为Nogo，具有抑制人脑及脊髓神经重生的能力。他还识别出神经中与Nogo结合的分子。2001年以来，他与Biogen公司不断寻找阻断这种受体的方法，以使神经可以重生。他们找出几种有潜力的蛋白质药品，在脊髓受伤后的一星期内注射，能与Nogo竞争，使之难以和受体结合。对早期脊髓受伤的老鼠进行的试验表明，这一方法至少可以局部治好瘫痪。
研发企业Biogen估计，该药将在2至4年内实施人体试验。
Biologists have long known that peripheral nerves (such as those in the hands and feet) sometimes grow back after they’re injured but that nerves in the spinal cord and brain do not. Now researchers are looking for a way to overcome natural inhibitions to nerve growth and help patients who have suffered spinal-cord trauma or stroke.
In the late 1990s, Yale University neurobiologist Stephen M. Strittmatter isolated a protein in the nerve cells’ protective sheath that inhibits the capacity of brain and spinal-cord nerves to regenerate. Strittmatter also identified the molecule on the nerves to which this regrowth-inhibiting protein, called Nogo, binds. Since 2001, Strittmatter has been working with Biogen to find a way to block this receptor and thus allow the nerves to regrow. They have come up with several potential protein drugs, which could be injected into the spinal cord up to a week after injury and would compete with Nogo to bind to its receptor. "The challenge now is to find the best candidate molecule," says Katherine Turner, Biogen’s vice president of validation biology.
In early tests on mice and rats with spinal-cord injuries, the approach at least partially reversed paralysis. Despite these encouraging results, however, Turner cautions that most researchers don’t consider mice good models for human neurological trauma. Also, it turns out there are two other proteins that bind to the receptor, and it is not yet clear whether the Nogo blockers will displace them as well-a process that may be necessary to trigger regeneration in the human spinal cord.
