Identification of the Kappa-Opioid Receptor as a Therapeutic Target for Oligodendrocyte Remyelination.
Feng MeiSonia R MayoralHiroko NobutaFei WangCaroline DespontsDaniel S LorrainLan XiaoAri J GreenDavid RowitchJennifer WhistlerJonah R ChanPublished in: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (2017)
Remyelination represents a promising strategy to achieve functional recovery in demyelinating diseases, like MS. Thus, identification of potent compounds and targets that promote remyelination represents a critically unmet need. This study reports a cluster of compounds that are highly effective in enhancing remyelination and identifies κ-opioid receptor (KOR) as a positive regulator for oligodendroglial differentiation, implicating KOR agonism as a potential strategy to accelerate remyelination.