Neuron 'repair agent' may be 'part-time' to treat infertility

On February 17, "Nature Communications" published a study by Chinese scholar Professor Lu Bai from the School of Pharmacy of Tsinghua University.

Lu Bai's team has been working to find potential drugs to treat nerve damage

The team unexpectedly discovered that this antibody drug, which can activate a specific target, can also promote oocyte maturation and follicle development in the non-nervous system

Problems with oocyte maturation and follicle development have long plagued women with infertility

So can this drug be symptomatic? The data show promise

Previous clinical data revealed that patients with premature ovarian failure showed a significant decrease in the level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in the plasma, and there were also papers that showed that genetic variants of brain-derived neurotrophic factor increased the risk of premature ovarian failure

In order to verify whether the neuron "repair agent" can restore fertility, the team began to conduct experiments on animal models

The researchers used two disease models of premature ovarian failure to test the efficacy of the drug

Studies have shown that in two animal models of premature ovarian failure, treatment with new antibody drugs can effectively maintain and promote follicle development, restore hormone homeostasis, and inhibit ovarian cell apoptosis

Finally, in order to explore the therapeutic application of drugs to patients with premature ovarian failure, the researchers used single-cell sequencing technology to analyze the gene expression of the target TrkB in female oocytes and granulosa cells.