title: Galanin acts as a trophic factor to the central and peripheral nervous systems.
abstract: The neuropeptide galanin is widely, but not ubiquitously, expressed in the adult nervous system. Its expression is markedly up-regulated in many neuronal tissues after nerve injury or disease. Over the last 10 years, we have demonstrated that the peptide plays a developmental survival role to subsets of neurons in the peripheral and central nervous systems with resulting phenotypic changes in neuropathic pain and cognition. Galanin also appears to play a trophic role to adult sensory neurons following injury, via activation of GalR2, by stimulating neurite outgrowth. Furthermore, galanin also plays a neuroprotective role to the hippocampus following excitotoxic injury, again mediated by activation of GalR2. Most recently, we have shown that galanin expression is markedly up-regulated in multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions and in the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model of MS. Over-expression of galanin in transgenic mice abolishes disease in the EAE model, whilst loss-of-function mutations in galanin or GalR2 increase disease severity. In summary, these studies demonstrate that a GalR2 agonist might have clinical utility in a variety of human diseases that affect the nervous system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, South Bristol, School of Medical Sciences, University Walk, Bristol University, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Hobson
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bacon
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Elliot-Hunt
authors.forename: F E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.forename: N C H
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Kerr
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pope
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vanderplank
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wynick
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D019004:Galanin / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017933:Peripheral Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D019004:Galanin