Alessandro Morelli
Genova Universit, Italy
Title: Finding of myelin energetic function supporting theaxonal nervous conduction: Perspectives in neurology.
Biography
Biography: Alessandro Morelli
Abstract
In the last years, we have focused our attention on the role of myelin sheath as an energy supporter for the nervous conduction [1]. We have observed that myelin is able to conduct and extramitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, consuming oxygen to produce ATP [2]. Moreover, we have also demonstrated a direct connection among myelin sheath and neuron, which may allow the transfer of ATP from the sheath to the axon [3]. Interestingly, the energetic role of myelin sheath was recently confirmed by Gat-Viks et al, studying the alteration of the energetic metabolism in the vanish white matter disease [4]. This finding introduces two new paradigms, one in bioenergetic and the other in neurobiology. Firstly, our data demonstrated that mitochondria is not the only “power-house”, but the OXPHOS proteins could be exported to other membranous structure, to provide a more efficient energy production [5]. Moreover, our hypothesis on the energetic function of myelin sheath sheds a new light on the role of this structure, giving a possible explanation of the neuron degeneration observed in the demyelinating diseases, as Multiple Sclerosis
