a New Drug Reversed Paralysis in Mice With Spinal Cord Injury [View all]

[packman]

Curing paralysis is a longstanding goal of medicine, and other cutting-edge research in the field includes experimental treatments using stem cells to make new neurons (nerve cells), gene therapy that tells the body to produce certain proteins to aid nerve repair, or injecting proteins.

Stupp's( Lead doctor) team, on the other hand, used nanofibers to mimic the architecture of the extracellular matrix – a naturally occurring network of molecules surrounding tissue that is responsible for supporting cells.

Each fiber is about 10,000 times narrower than a human hair, and they are made up of hundreds of thousands of bioactive molecules called peptides that transmit signals to promote nerve regeneration.

The therapy was injected as a gel into tissue surrounding the spinal cords of lab mice 24 hours after an incision was made in their spines.


https://www.sciencealert.com/new-drug-reversed-paralysis-in-mice-with-spinal-injuries