Chirality-Dependent Anti-Inflammatory Effect of Glutathione after Spinal Cord Injury in an Animal Model

Abstract

Neuroinflammation forms a glial scar following a spinal cord injury (SCI). The injured axon cannot regenerate across the scar, suggesting permanent paraplegia. Molecular chirality can show an entirely different bio-function by means of chiral-specific interaction. In this study, we report that d-chiral glutathione (D-GSH) suppresses the inflammatory response after SCI and leads to axon regeneration of the injured spinal cord to a greater extent than l-chiral glutathione (L-GSH). After SCI, axon regrowth in D-GSH-treated rats was significantly increased compared with that in L-GSH-treated rats (*** p p p p < 0.001). These findings reveal a potential new regenerative function of chiral GSH in SCI and suggest that chiral GSH has therapeutic potential as a treatment of other diseases.

Keywords

• spinal cord injuries
• chirality
• glutathione
• neuroinflammation
• glial scars