Chao Zhang, Zhao Yan, Asif Maknojia, Manuel A Riquelme, Sumin Gu, Grant Booher, David J Wallace, Viktor Bartanusz, Akshay Goswami, Wei Xiong, Ningyan Zhang, Michael J Mader, Zhiqiang An, Naomi L Sayre, Jean X Jiang
Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes severe disability, and the current inability to restore function to the damaged spinal cord leads to lasting detrimental consequences to patients. One strategy to reduce SCI morbidity involves limiting the spread of secondary damage after injury. Previous studies have shown that connexin 43 (Cx43), a gap junction protein richly expressed in spinal cord astrocytes, is a potential mediator of secondary damage. Here, we developed a specific inhibitory antibody, mouse-human chimeric MHC1 antibody (MHC1), that inhibited Cx43 hemichannels, but not gap junctions, and reduced secondary damage in 2 incomplete SCI mouse models...
March 8, 2021: JCI Insight