The plant natural product 2-methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone stimulates therapeutic neural repair properties of olfactory ensheathing cells

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Author(s)
Chen, M
Vial, ML
Gee, L
Davis, RA
St John, JA
Ekberg, JAK
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2020
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Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) are crucial for promoting the regeneration of the primary olfactory nervous system that occurs throughout life. Transplantation of OECs has emerged as a promising therapy for nervous system injuries, in particular for spinal cord injury repair. Functional outcomes in both animals and humans are, however, highly variable, primarily because it is difficult to rapidly obtain enough OECs for transplantation. Compounds which can stimulate OEC proliferation without changing the phenotype of the cells are therefore highly sought after. Additionally, compounds which can stimulate favourable cell ...
View more >Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) are crucial for promoting the regeneration of the primary olfactory nervous system that occurs throughout life. Transplantation of OECs has emerged as a promising therapy for nervous system injuries, in particular for spinal cord injury repair. Functional outcomes in both animals and humans are, however, highly variable, primarily because it is difficult to rapidly obtain enough OECs for transplantation. Compounds which can stimulate OEC proliferation without changing the phenotype of the cells are therefore highly sought after. Additionally, compounds which can stimulate favourable cell behaviours such as migration and phagocytic activity are desirable. We conducted a medium-throughput screen testing the Davis open access natural product-based library (472 compounds) and subsequently identified the known plant natural product 2-methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone as a stimulant of OEC viability. We showed that 2-methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone: (i) strongly stimulates proliferation over several weeks in culture whilst maintaining the OEC phenotype; (ii) stimulates the phagocytic activity of OECs, and (iii) modulates the cell cycle. We also identified the transcription factor Nrf2 as the compound’s potential molecular target. From these extensive investigations we conclude that 2-methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone may enhance the therapeutic potential of OECs by stimulating proliferation prior to transplantation.
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View more >Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) are crucial for promoting the regeneration of the primary olfactory nervous system that occurs throughout life. Transplantation of OECs has emerged as a promising therapy for nervous system injuries, in particular for spinal cord injury repair. Functional outcomes in both animals and humans are, however, highly variable, primarily because it is difficult to rapidly obtain enough OECs for transplantation. Compounds which can stimulate OEC proliferation without changing the phenotype of the cells are therefore highly sought after. Additionally, compounds which can stimulate favourable cell behaviours such as migration and phagocytic activity are desirable. We conducted a medium-throughput screen testing the Davis open access natural product-based library (472 compounds) and subsequently identified the known plant natural product 2-methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone as a stimulant of OEC viability. We showed that 2-methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone: (i) strongly stimulates proliferation over several weeks in culture whilst maintaining the OEC phenotype; (ii) stimulates the phagocytic activity of OECs, and (iii) modulates the cell cycle. We also identified the transcription factor Nrf2 as the compound’s potential molecular target. From these extensive investigations we conclude that 2-methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone may enhance the therapeutic potential of OECs by stimulating proliferation prior to transplantation.
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Journal Title
Scientific Reports
Volume
10
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2020. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Subject
Neurology and neuromuscular diseases