Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine have identified a gene, SARM1, that can serve as a therapeutic target for treating a wide variety of neurodegenerative diseases . The SARM1 gene, when activated, triggers axon death, which is essential to neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis. The researchers studied the role of the gene in mouse models with a rare, unnamed form of progressive neuropathy and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2a.
The deletion of the SARM1 gene in both models reduced axonal and muscular degradation and muscular atrophy and also reduced the progression of mitochondrial dysfunction — all major factors in neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis. The study opens a new avenue for treating neurodegenerative diseases, as researchers are hopeful that the findings could be relevant to all other neurodegenerative diseases where mitochondrial damage is…
