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SARM1 can be a potential therapeutic target for spinal cord injury

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Abstract

Injury to the spinal cord is devastating. Studies have implicated Wallerian degeneration as the main cause of axonal destruction in the wake of spinal cord injury. Therefore, the suppression of Wallerian degeneration could be beneficial for spinal cord injury treatment. Sterile alpha and armadillo motif-containing protein 1 (SARM1) is a key modulator of Wallerian degeneration, and its impediment can improve spinal cord injury to a significant degree. In this report, we analyze the various signaling domains of SARM1, the recent findings on Wallerian degeneration and its relation to axonal insults, as well as its connection to SARM1, the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling, and the survival factor, nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase 2 (NMNAT2). We then elaborate on the possible role of SARM1 in spinal cord injury and explicate how its obstruction could potentially alleviate the injury.

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Acknowledgements

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Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (no. LY19H170001).

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  1. Qicheng Lu, Benson O. A. Botchway, Yong Zhang and Tian Jin contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Histology and Embryology, Medical College, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China

    Qicheng Lu, Yong Zhang, Tian Jin & Xuehong Liu

  2. Institute of Neuroscience, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China

    Benson O. A. Botchway

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  1. Qicheng Lu
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  2. Benson O. A. Botchway
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  3. Yong Zhang
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  4. Tian Jin
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XL designed the study. QL, BOAB, YZ, TJ and XL prepared the first draft of the manuscript. QL, YZ, BOAB and XL revised the manuscript. All authors approved the final paper.

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Lu, Q., Botchway, B.O.A., Zhang, Y. et al. SARM1 can be a potential therapeutic target for spinal cord injury. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 79, 161 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-022-04195-4

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