MadSci Network: Neuroscience
Query:

Re: Other than trauma, can damage the myelin sheath?

Date: Thu Nov 5 09:39:53 1998
Posted By: James Goss, Post-doc/Fellow, Neurology, University of Pittsburgh
Area of science: Neuroscience
ID: 909587278.Ns
Message:

   I am assuming that you are asking for drugs or chemicals which pass 
through the myelin sheath, without doing damage to it, and cause damage or 
degeneration to the underlying nerve.  The short answer to your question is 
that I could not find any substance which does this.  After being stumped, 
I asked a Neurologist collegue of mine, who also could not think of any 
such drug or chemical.  There are many chemicals which can damage the 
myelin and thus affect nerve conduction.  Likewise, there are several 
substances which can kill the neuron and leave the myelin intact, but these 
substances gain access to the neuron either at the cell body or at the cell 
terminals, not the myelin covered axon.


   


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