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Faculty and Staff
Bruce Gold,
PhD. , Associate
Professor
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Recovery of function following axonal
loss is dependent upon regeneration of the injured axon, which is a slow process.
Drugs that could speed this process would be clinically useful. Systemic administration
of the immunosuppressant drug FK506 dose-dependently accelerates functional recovery by
increasing the rate of nerve regeneration following a peripheral nerve injury in rats
and in human hand transplantations. The development of nonimmunosuppressant
orally efficacious derivatives that enhance nerve regenerative demonstrates that these
two properties are separable. These compounds also protect against injury-induced and
toxic chemical-induced (acrylamide) axonal loss in the peripheral nerve and spinal cord.
Marked neuroregeneration/neuroprotection and functional recovery are also observed in
experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mice, an animal model of multiple
sclerosis. Cell culture models are used to examine the underlying mechanism(s).
Such studies reveal that neurite outgrowth is mediated via binding to a unique
FK506-binding protein, FKBP-52 (which binds to Hsp-90 in steroid receptor complexes)
and subsequent activation of the MAP kinase (ERK) pathway. Compounds that bind to
Hsp-90 and disrupt steroid receptor complexes (e.g, geldanamycin) are also
neurotrophic. Thus, components of steroid receptor complexes (e.g., FKBP-52 and Hsp-90)
represent potential targets for the development of new drugs for the treatment of human
neurological disorders. Dr. Gold serves on the editorial board of the Indian Journal of
Experimental Biology and co-edited the 2000 book Immunophilins in the Brain.
FKBP-ligands: Novel strategies for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.
He has seven issued patents and in May 2005 formed the OHSU start-up company Recovexx
Pharmaceuticals Inc. (San Diego, CA). |
- Neurology Department Website
- Biographical Sketch
- Publications
- Email:gold@ohsu.edu
- Contact Information
- Bruce Gold, PhD.
- Department of Neurology
- Oregon Health & Science University
- 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, L226
- Portland, Oregon 97239-3098
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