Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurologie and Center for Stroke Research Berlin, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
J Clin Invest. 2010 May;120(5):1383-6. doi: 10.1172/JCI40764. Epub 2010 Apr 26.
Strong epidemiological evidence indicates that derangement of single-carbon metabolism has detrimental effects for proper CNS functioning. Conversely, a role for folate supplementation in the treatment and prevention of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders remains to be established. In this issue of the JCI, in an elegant series of experiments in rodents, Iskandar and colleagues demonstrate a crucial role of folate in the regeneration of afferent spinal neurons after injury. Probing sequential steps in folate metabolism, from cellular entry to DNA methylation, the authors show that axonal regeneration relies upon the integrity of DNA methylation pathways. These findings provide the first demonstration of an epigenetic mechanism contributing to neurorepair and suggest that manipulation of the methylation milieu may offer promising new therapeutic avenues to promote regeneration.
强有力的流行病学证据表明，单碳代谢失调对中枢神经系统的正常功能有不良影响。相反，叶酸补充在治疗和预防神经退行性和神经精神疾病方面的作用仍有待确定。在本期 JCI 中，Iskandar 及其同事在一系列精巧的啮齿动物实验中，证明了叶酸在损伤后传入脊髓神经元再生中的关键作用。通过探测叶酸代谢的一系列步骤，从细胞摄取到 DNA 甲基化，作者表明轴突再生依赖于 DNA 甲基化途径的完整性。这些发现首次证明了一种表观遗传机制有助于神经修复，并表明对甲基化环境的调控可能为促进再生提供有前途的新治疗途径。
