Scientists show the positive side of steroids

Scientists at Swansea University's College of Medicine and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, have identified two steroids-type molecules that play an important role in the survival and production of nerve cells in the brain.

The discovery, which has been published online in the international journal Nature Chemical Biology, may be significant in the long term for the treatment of several diseases, such as Parkinson's disease.

The group at Karolinska's Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology has previously shown that receptors known as 'liver X receptors'or LXR, are necessary for the production of different types of nerve cells, or neurons, in the developing brain.

One of these types, the mid-brain dopamine-producing neurons, plays an important role in a number of diseases, such as Parkinson's disease.  What was not known, however, was which molecules stimulate LXR in the brain, such that the production of new nerve cells could be initiated.

A collaboration between the Karolinska group and Professor William J Griffiths and Dr Yuqin Wang at Swansea University's Institute of Mass Spectrometry, who are expert in the use of mass spectrometry to identify biomolecules, has led to the discovery of two steroid-type molecules that bind to LXR and activate it.

Prof William Griffiths say, ''These two molecules are named cholic acid and 24S,25-epoxycholesterol, a bile acid and a close relative of cholesterol, respectively," said Professor William J Griffiths (pictured).