CUHK Team Study May Help Reverse Brain Damage

"); jQuery("#212 h3").html("

"); jQuery(document).ready(function() { jwplayer.key='EKOtdBrvhiKxeOU807UIF56TaHWapYjKnFiG7ipl3gw='; var playerInstance = jwplayer("jquery_jwplayer_1"); playerInstance.setup({ file: "http://newsstatic.rthk.hk/audios/mfile_1397949_1_20180524153838.mp3", skin: { url: location.href.split('/', 4).join('/') + '/jwplayer/skin/rthk/five.css', name: 'five' }, hlshtml: true, width: "100%", height: 30, wmode: 'transparent', primary: navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Trident")>-1 ? "flash" : "html5", events: { onPlay: function(event) { dcsMultiTrack('DCS.dcsuri', 'http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1397949-20180524.mp3', 'WT.ti', ' Audio at newsfeed', 'WT.cg_n', '#rthknews', 'WT.cg_s', 'Multimedia','WT.es','http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1397949-20180524.htm', 'DCS.dcsqry', '' ); } } }); }); });

2018-05-24 HKT 15:38

Share this story

• 

  Professor Lau Kwok-fai says the study may lead to drugs to fight diseases like Alzheimer’s. Photo: RTHK

Lau Kwok-fai talks to RTHK's Wendy Wong

A group of researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) say they have found that increasing the presence of two types of proteins in the brain can potentially stimulate the growth of nerve cells and treat brain damage.

Professor Lau Kwok-fai of the university’s School of Life Sciences said some brain injuries and diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease are caused by the damage of “neurites”, which connect nerve cells.

He said neurites are like cables connecting computers to each other and problems occur when these cables get damaged due to some injury or illness, like Alzheimer’s disease.

He said his research team found that adding the proteins, named FE65 and ELMO1, into the cells could help neurites to regrow.

Lau told RTHK's Wendy Wong that their work also showed that it may be possible to combine these two proteins into a drug.