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Researchers discover brain chemical that causes heterotopic ossification
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A study from Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania has found a neuropeptide in the brain called Substance P appears to trigger heterotopic ossification.
The discovery offers a molecular target for drugs to potentially prevent and treat the abnormal growth, he author state. The study was published in the Journal of Cellular Biochemistry.
“Patients who have it become very uncomfortable, and there is no way to make it go away,” senior author Jack Kessler, MD, stated in a Northwestern University press release. “This explains why it happens and gives us a way to develop a therapy to potentially treat it.”
The researchers found that Substance P is dramatically increased in newly damaged tissue of patients who have heterotopic ossification or the genetic disease fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. The findings were replicated in three independent mouse models of heterotopic ossification.
According to the study abstract, null mutations of the preprotachykinin gene that encodes Substance P can prevent heterotopic ossification. Further, Substance P sensory neuron ablation, antagonistic treatment of the Substance P receptor NK1r — or deletion/down-regulation of the NK1r gene — can also inhibit the development of heterotopic ossification.
“These observations establish a potent neuro-inflammatory induction and amplification circuit for BMP-dependent [heterotopic ossification] lesion formation, and identify novel molecular targets for prevention,” the authors wrote.
Reference:
- Kan L, Lounev VY, Pignolo RJ, et al. J Cell Biochem. 2011. doi: 10.1002/jcb.23259
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