Injured neurons in fruit flies and mice regrow better when the activity of Rtca, an RNA-processing enzyme, is reduced.

Permanent damage to the central nervous system can occur when injured nerve cells fail to regenerate their axons — the long, impulse-transmitting part of the nerve cell. Yuh Nung Jan at the University of California in San Francisco and his colleagues screened fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) and found that severed axons regrew more effectively in mutant flies with reduced activity of Rtca.

When the enzyme was overexpressed, axons were regenerated less often and were much shorter than in normal flies. Similar results were seen in rat cells and in mice.

Altering the activity of Rtca or other molecules that it regulates could offer treatments for nervous-system injuries, the authors suggest.

Nature Neurosci. http://doi.org/4m3 (2015)