Midkine: The Who, What, Where, and When of a Promising Neurotrophic Therapy for Perinatal Brain Injury

Emily Ross-Munro; Faith Kwa; Jenny Kreiner; Madhavi Khore; Suzanne L Miller; Mary Tolcos; Bobbi Fleiss; David W Walker

doi:10.3389/fneur.2020.568814

Midkine: The Who, What, Where, and When of a Promising Neurotrophic Therapy for Perinatal Brain Injury

Front Neurol. 2020 Oct 22:11:568814. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2020.568814. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Emily Ross-Munro¹, Faith Kwa^{1

2}, Jenny Kreiner¹, Madhavi Khore¹, Suzanne L Miller³, Mary Tolcos¹, Bobbi Fleiss^{1

4}, David W Walker¹

Affiliations

¹ Neurodevelopment in Health and Disease Research Program, School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
² School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
³ The Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia.
⁴ Neurodiderot, Inserm U1141, Universita de Paris, Paris, France.

Abstract

Midkine (MK) is a small secreted heparin-binding protein highly expressed during embryonic/fetal development which, through interactions with multiple cell surface receptors promotes growth through effects on cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation. MK is upregulated in the adult central nervous system (CNS) after multiple types of experimental injury and has neuroprotective and neuroregenerative properties. The potential for MK as a therapy for developmental brain injury is largely unknown. This review discusses what is known of MK's expression and actions in the developing brain, areas for future research, and the potential for using MK as a therapeutic agent to ameliorate the effects of brain damage caused by insults such as birth-related hypoxia and inflammation.

Keywords: hypoxia; midkine; neuroinflammation; neurotrophins; perinatal brain damage; preterm birth.

Publication types

Review