Monkeys can also suffer from hereditary neurodegenerative diseases?

This discovery may lead to the development of new treatments for Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease, which is the latest discovery in a large-scale genome database established by the Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon State University

This latest research is published in today's "Disease Neurobiology" journal

"This is a disease caused by a single mutation in a single gene," said Dr.

Sherman said that Ohio State University scientists are already looking forward to working with scientists who are developing experimental gene therapies in mice

The research also includes new discoveries that reveal how Pelizaeus-Merzbacher and related diseases develop

The veterinarian at the Primate Research Center noticed that three young rhesus monkeys showed symptoms such as tremor and motor dysfunction.

This work was led by Dr.

Subsequent genetic analysis revealed that the three animals are related to each other, and their parents carry a rare mutation in the PLP1 gene that causes Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease

It is a progressive degenerative disease of the central nervous system with varying severity and incidence.

The genome database of the Primate Research Center made this discovery possible

Sherman said: "In the past, it was unrecognizable

This marks the latest in a series of discoveries made by the Oregon National Primate Research Center by sequencing the genomes of non-human primates

The co-author of the study, Dr.

Advances in gene editing technology provide new ways to prevent and treat genetic diseases

When Ferguson described this work in 2018, he said: "10 years ago, our findings would not have the same impact, because we didn't have the technology to solve the disease-causing mutation

This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health R24 OD021324, R24 NS104161 and P51 OD011092

Journal Reference :

1. Larry S.
   Sherman, Weiping Su, Amanda L.
   Johnson, Samuel M.
   Peterson, Cassandra Cullin, Tiffany Lavinder, Betsy Ferguson, Anne D.
   Lewis.
   A novel non-human primate model of Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease .
   Neurobiology of Disease , 2021 ; 105465 DOI: 10.
   1016/j.
   nbd.
   2021.
   105465