Brain cell dysfunction in low oxygen is, surprisingly, caused by the very same responder system that is intended to be protective, according to a new published study by a team of researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

“These powerful protein responders initially protect brain cells from low oxygen as expected, but we find that their prolonged activity leads to unintended collateral damage that ultimately impairs brain cell function,” said the study’s principal investigator Paul Tesar, a professor in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and the Dr. Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Professor of Innovative Therapeutics.

Defining the mechanism of brain-cell damage in low oxygen conditions provides an opportunity to develop effective therapies, including a class of drugs studied in their research that could inform future clinical approaches for many neurological diseases caused by low oxygen. The work also clarifies how the response to low oxygen causes disease in other tissues outside the brain.

The body’s response to low oxygen:

With the dawn of an oxygenated atmosphere, a burst of multicellular life was possible, as oxygen could be used to produce the energy needed to support complex life functions. Given the requirement of oxygen for life, nearly all organisms evolved a mechanism to rapidly respond to low oxygen–a condition called hypoxia. The Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded in 2019 for discoveries of how cells in our body sense low oxygen levels and respond to stay alive. 

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