This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that blood serum concentrations of neuroproteins and neurosteroids are associated with neonatal maladjustment syndrome (NMS) in newborn foals. The work could lead to better diagnostic tools and potential therapies.
"Neonatal maladjustment syndrome is a very complex disease in neonatal foals," says Katarzyna Dembek, associate professor of clinical sciences at NC State and corresponding author of the research published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine. "Foals with NMS usually develop neurological signs at birth or within the first 24–48 hours after birth. When you rule out brain damage from foaling, many of those foals with NMS can recover.
But the mechanism behind the disease is not completely understood." While clinical signs of NMS vary, the most common is a lack of a normal nursing reflex. In more severe cases, foals can develop seizures and become comatose. Treatment consists primarily of using a feeding tube or teaching the foal to drink from a bucket until they can be weaned, along with supportive care for more severe cases.
Dembek's team was particularly interested in three neuroproteins, two of which are produced by astrocytes, or brain cells that support the nervous system. The neuroproteins—brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and astrocytic protein S100B—are used to diagnose several neurological diseases, such as Parkinson's disease and neonatal encephalopathy, in people but haven't been studied in foals with neurological symptoms. The team took blood serum and plasma measurements from 14 healthy and 58 hospitalized foals.
Of the hospitalized foals, 19 had NMS, while the others had different diseases, such as sepsis or diarrhea. Blood serum was measured at admission and again on days 1 and 2 of hospitalization. In addition to the neuroproteins, the team measured levels of three pregnanes, or neurosteroids that are produced in the brain and can affect neuronal function.
These neurosteroids are metabolites of progesterone, a pregnancy hormone, and have been detected at high levels in the brains of both normal foals and foals with NMS. "The difference is, while normal healthy foals have high concentrations of those progesterone-derived steroids, the levels decrease very quickly," Dembek says. "Within 24–48 hours, they're unmeasurable.
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