Researchers found way to repair spinal damage in animals
Researchers are reporting in Nature Neuroscience that by combining drugs, electrical stimulation and regular therapy that they were able to get rats with spinal cord damage to walk again and to support their own body weight again. This therapy focuses on training the brain and spinal cord to start working together again rather than trying to reconnect the spinal cord at the damage point. The combination of therapies gets around stem cell issues and uses the healing capabilities of the body directly. Drugs are used to get the spinal cord more excitable so that it will take input from lower muscles. Therapy is then used to move the arms and legs to produce the input required by the newly excited spinal cord. Energy signals are then used to create conduits that the brain can lock on to so brain cells can control the arm and leg muscles again. Note that this research was on animals only and that considerable work needs to be done before this is turned into a therapy to be used on humans.But for now it appears that we have a potentially new method for repairing damage in spinal cords that uses the power of the body to heal itself. (Source: New York Times)
It is always interesting to see new methods to repair spinal cord damage. Up to this point most of the potential therapies in the wings have been tied to stem cells of one sort or another. A few are trying different chemical techniques to get the nerves to regenerate but none are using a multiple staged attack of the problem. The researchers have said that they expect the same responses in humans that they are seeing in lab animals. If they are correct then we may finally have a method of repairing at least some of the spinal cord injuries enough that they could support their own weight and walk again. That would be truly astounding news when that time comes as it is the holy grail of spinal injury researchers.
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