The Yak Mutation That Could Help Repair the Brain (EP 56)
Om avsnittet
What can a yak living thousands of meters above sea level teach us about repairing the human brain?
In Episode 56 of From First Principles, Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary break down a new Neuron paper that traces an evolutionary adaptation found in high-altitude animals to a previously hidden pathway involved in building and repairing myelin.
Summary
- What myelin actually does and why losing it disrupts neural communication
- How multiple sclerosis damages myelin and why the brain’s natural repair process eventually fails
- Why oligodendrocyte precursor cells can remain present in damaged tissue without successfully rebuilding myelin
- Why current therapies are better at slowing further damage than restoring what has already been lost
- The challenge of getting drugs across the blood-brain barrier while maintaining target specificity
- How evolutionary pharmacology has previously produced medicines from adaptations found in snakes and Gila monsters
- The RETSAT Q247R variant identified in animals adapted to the hypoxic environment of the Tibetan Plateau
- How researchers engineered the high-altitude variant into mice and tested its effect on myelin
- The surprising discovery that neurons — rather than the myelin-producing cells themselves — generate the key repair signal
- How RETSAT increases ATDR, which neurons convert into ATDRA
- How ATDRA activates RXR-γ in oligodendrocyte precursor cells and promotes their differentiation
- How administration of ATDR promoted remyelination across multiple preclinical models
- Why the result is scientifically promising but still far from a proven human treatment
Featured Paper
A gain-of-function Retsat variant from high-altitude adaptation promotes myelination via a neuronal dihydroretinoic acid-RXR-γ pathway
Neuron, 2026
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2026.01.013
Explore FFPffppod.comffppod.com/fundingffppod.com/transfersffppod.com/America250
Support the showffppod.com/donate
Follow@FFPPod on X / Instagram / TikTok / Facebook
Fler avsnitt
Visa alla avsnitt av From First PrinciplesFrom First Principles med Krishna Choudhary and Lester Nare finns tillgänglig på flera plattformar. Informationen på denna sida kommer från offentliga podd-flöden.