Greg Duncan

Assistant professor @ UMN. My lab studies how myelin regulates the function and health of neurons. Father and husband who loves the outdoors.

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

https://t.co/C2wLRnCv0m

I am excited to announce our work on how myelin loss culminates in neurodegeneration has been published at Nature Communications. While I have previously covered our findings as a preprint in more detail below, our key findings are:

[Robert Hill @bobalhill]

New work from Yasmine Kamen shows that differentiating oligodendrocytes are filled with the zymogen procaspase-3. This provides a specific marker for new oligodendrocytes and suggests a role for this pathway in oligodendrocyte fate decisions.

https://t.co/qGx23d7Dxp

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

Our work was recently covered by the National MS Society if you are looking for a more lay summary of the results and its implications.

https://t.co/vMDfj3tX25

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

https://t.co/C2wLRnCv0m

I am excited to announce our work on how myelin loss culminates in neurodegeneration has been published at Nature Communications. While I have previously covered our findings as a preprint in more detail below, our key findings are:

[Dongeun Heo @DongeunHeo]

And the completion of this story was only possible because of all the help from the most amazing @Anya_A_Kim and Björn Neumann in the Franklin lab!🥰

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

@schirmerlab @MyelinLab Thanks Lucas!

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

@Jiaxingli Thanks Jiaxing!

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

@Dr_Oligo Appreciated Wendy!

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

@LabStratton Thanks Jo!

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

@EthanHughesLab Thanks Ethan! It's exciting to finally see it out!

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

@Craigurs Thanks Craig! It's great to see it finally out.

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

@AJ_Thompson_ Thanks Andrew!

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

3. Remyelination suppresses activation of DLK in neurons and safeguards them from degeneration.
In conclusion, demyelinated neurons can be protected either by promoting remyelination or blocking neuronal DLK signaling.

Thanks to all the coauthors who made this work possible!

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

1. Loss of demyelinated neurons in the retina requires activation of neuronal injury signaling mediated by the axonally-expressed protein Dual Leucine zipper Kinase (DLK).
2. DLK knockout or inhibitors protect neurons from degeneration.

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

@Jiaxingli @MonkLab1 @VollumInstitute @CathyFlyMom @ChristophWCowan Congratulations Jiaxing!

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

@asghariadib @CathyFlyMom @ManishKD_neuro @abbby_rogers Congratulations Elham! It’s really great work.

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

This has been the culmination of many years of work from myself and the coauthors of this manuscript, without which this work would have been impossible. Thank you all so much for your help!

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

Very excited to share our preprint on how chronic myelin loss (demyelination) injures neurons and how we may be able to mitigate neurodegeneration in demyelinating diseases like MS

https://t.co/Oj6xb3KaJf

Check out the thread 👇 for more details.

[Greg Duncan @GregDuncs]

What does all this mean? We can protect demyelinated neurons from loss in two ways – by promoting remyelination or by inhibiting DLK. Notably, even a relatively small degree of remyelination reduces apoptosis.