Abstract: The present invention relates to compositions and methods employing postnatal (e.g., adult) neural crest stem cells. The stem cells are multipotent and differentiate when transplanted in vivo. Transplantation methods are provided for therapeutic, diagnostic, and research applications.

Abstract: The invention relates generally to methods of influencing central nervous system cells to produce progeny useful in the treatment of CNS disorders. More specifically, the invention includes methods of exposing a patient suffering from such a disorder to a reagent that modulates the proliferation, migration, differentiation and survival of central nervous system cells. These methods are useful for reducing at least one symptom of the disorder.

Abstract: The present invention provides new methods of treating wet type of age related macular degeneration by administering adiponectin (APN) or a functional fragment derived therefrom. One of the pathological complications of age related macular degeneration (AMD) is choroidal angiogenesis or choroidal neovascularization (CNV). The inventors discovered that the level of APN expression is significantly lower in the choroids of the laser-induced mouse model of choroidal angiogenesis or choroidal neovascularization (CNV) than that of the control mice and that administration of recombinant adiponectin (rAPN) or a peptide derived from the globular domain of the intact APN protein to the mouse model of CNV reduced the size of CNV significantly. These studies are the first to demonstrate the inhibitory effect of adiponectin on choroidal angiogenesis and thus provide the basis for treating a condition or disease involving angiogenesis, particularly age related macular degeneration, with administration of adiponectin.

Abstract: The present invention provides for methods and materials for diagnosing and treating neuromyelitis optica (NMO).

Abstract: Disclosed are a method and a corresponding pharmaceutical composition for treating damaged cartilage and subchondral bone. Neurogenic compounds in general and neuropeptides in particular have been found to be highly effective in stimulated repair of cartilage and bone damaged due to traumatic injury, ligament disease, and disuse. Preferred active ingredients for use in the method and corresponding pharmaceutical composition include calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), cholecystokinin (CCK), dynorphin, enkephalin, galanin, neuropeptide Y (NPY), neurotensin, somatostatin, substance P (SP), thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP).

Abstract: A method for identifying compounds that inhibit amyloid-beta precursor protein processing in cells, comprising contacting a test compound with a GPCR polypeptide, or fragment thereof, and measuring a compound-GPCR property related to the production of amyloid-beta peptide. Cellular assays of the method measure indicators including second messenger and/or amyloid beta peptide levels. Therapeutic methods, and pharmaceutical compositions including effective amyloid-beta precursor processing-inhibiting amounts of GPCR expression inhibitors, are useful for treating conditions involving cognitive impairment such as Alzheimers Disease.

Abstract: Fucose galactose carbohydrates have been shown to induce neuronal outgrowth. The invention includes methods of inducing neuronal outgrowth using carbohydrates, assemblies, and polymers bearing fucose-galactose moieties, as well as associated proteins. Cell growth can be stimulated in cells in culture or in cells within an animal or patient. Growth stimulation has application to understanding and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases including, for example, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis and conditions such as stroke, brain injury and spinal cord injury. Such compounds, polymers, and assemblies also can be used to increase neural stem or progenitor cells in culture or in an animal, and to enervate engineered tissue.

Abstract: The invention relates to novel neuregulin-? isoforms associated with neuronal processes.

Abstract: Provided are methods and compositions for maintaining the viability of photoreceptor cells following retinal detachment. The viability of photoreceptor cells can be preserved by administering an apoptosis inhibitor to a mammal having an eye with retinal detachment. The apoptosis inhibitor maintains the viability of the photoreceptor cells until such time that the retina becomes reattached to the underlying retinal pigment epithelium and choroid. The treatment minimizes the loss of vision, which otherwise may occur as a result of retinal detachment.

Abstract: The present invention provides methods and compositions for protecting cells from the toxicity of mutant huntingtin (Htt) protein and for treatment of Huntington's disease (HD). The methods generally involve administering to cells or a patient an effective amount of an IKK inhibitor. In addition, methods are provided for identifying therapeutics for the treatment of HD.

Abstract: The invention provides methods of treating a subject having a disease, disorder or condition of the central nervous system. The methods include administering TGF-? polypeptides, related polypeptides, fragments and mimetics thereof useful in stimulating progenitor cell or stem cell proliferation, migration and differentiation. The methods of the invention are useful to treat and prophylactically ameliorate neurological tissue injury in vivo.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods and compositions for early diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of retinal dystrophy, age-related macular degeneration, Bardet-Biedel syndrome, Bassen-kornzweig syndrome, best disease, chroidema, gyrate atrophy, congenital amourosis, refsun syndrome, stargardt disease and Usher syndrome. In particular, the invention relates to a protein, termed 2Rdcvf1,” that is differentially transcribed and expressed in subjects suffering from retinal dystrophies and the like, such as retinal dystrophy and age-related macular degeneration compared with non-sufferers, antibodies which recongnize this protein, and methods for diagnosing such conditions.

Abstract: The present invention features methods and compositions for treating a patient who has a neurological deficit. The method can be carried out, for example, by contacting (in vivo or in culture) a neural progenitor cell of the patient's central nervous system (CNS) with a polypeptide that binds the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor and directing progeny of the proliferating progenitor cells to migrate en masse to a region of the CNS in which they will reside and function in a manner sufficient to reduce the neurological deficit. The method may include a further step in which the progeny of the neural precursor cells are contacted with a compound that stimulates differentiation.

Abstract: NTNR?, NTNR? extracellular domain (ECD), NTNR? variants, chimeric NTNR? (e.g., NTNR? immunoadhesion), and antibodies which bind thereto (including agonist and neutralizing antibodies) are disclosed. Various uses for these molecules are described, including methods to modulate cell activity and survival by response to NTNR?-ligands, for example NTN, by providing NTNR? to the cell.

Abstract: Disclosed are a method and a corresponding pharmaceutical composition for treating damaged ligaments. Neurogenic compounds in general and neuropeptides in particular have been found to be highly effective in stimulated repair of ligaments damaged due to traumatic injury, ligament disease, and disuse. Preferred active ingredients for use in the method and corresponding pharmaceutical composition include calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), cholecystokinin (CCK), dynorphin, enkephalin, galanin, neuropeptide Y (NPY), neurotensin, somatostatin, substance P (SP), thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP).

Abstract: The invention discloses a family of neuronal migration-inducing, proliferation-promoting and neurite outgrowth promoting factors, termed NRP compounds, and provides compositions and methods for the use of NRP compounds in the treatment of brain injury and neurodegenerative disease. NRP compounds induce neurons and neuroblasts to proliferate and migrate into areas of damage caused by acute brain injury or chronic neurodegenerative disease, such as stroke, trauma, nervous system infections, demyelinating diseases, dementias, and metabolic disorders. NRP compounds may be administered directly to a subject or to a subject's cells by a variety of means including orally, intraperitoneally, intravascularly, and directly into the nervous system of a patient.

Abstract: Phage peptide display technology was used to identify peptides that bind specifically to the amyloid form of the A?1-40 peptide. Peptides with similar structural features and bind to the amyloid form of A?1-40 but not to monomeric A?1-40, are provided. Such peptides are useful as carrier molecules to deliver therapeutic and diagnostic reagents to amyloid plaques.

Abstract: The invention provides a diagnostic composition for detecting an affective disorder comprising an antibody selected from the group consisting of an antibody to a beta-arrestin, an antibody to a G-protein coupled receptor kinase and combinations thereof as the active detecting agent therein.

Abstract: The present invention pertains to methods to promote outgrowth of, or extension across a substrate of, neuronal cells by inhibiting the interaction between the cytoplasmic tail of the L1-CAM cell surface adhesion molecule and the cytoskeletal protein ankyrin. The invention also pertains to a method to treat diseases characterized by axonal damage such as spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, stroke, and neurodegenerative disease by administration of novel peptides that inhibit the binding of the L1-CAM cytoplasmic tail to ankyrin, and to pharmaceutical compositions comprising such peptides. The invention further pertains to a method of blocking calcium flux to protect against neural cell death following stroke or traumatic head injury.

Abstract: The present invention relates to antibodies that specifically bind to human BNP and immunoassays using said antibodies in the quantification of human BNP or a fragment of human BNP in a test sample.