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Quote from Carecure:
Michael Fehlings et al. have a study in tomorrow's Journal of Neuroscience reporting that the combination of chondroitinase, two three growth factors, and NPCs restores greater function than NPCs alone. It also shows that the functional restoration occured without a corresponding increase in neuropathic pain.
I find this exciting because a) it justifies the use of combination therapies in humans,
it's the beginning of [what I suspect will be] a string of results of various combination therapies, and c) it shows that the various SCINets will have a validated pipeline of combinations to choose from for human application.From the paper's intro:
Quote:
Repair of the chronically injured spinal cord is inherently challenging due to multiple factors, including cellular loss, a cystic cavity that disrupts axonal pathways, and the inhibitory influence of the glial scar (Silver and Miller, 2004; Thuret et al., 2006). Therefore, treatment of chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) will require a multifaceted strategy. To date, no successful functional treatment for contusive chronic SCI has been achieved. . . .
Here, in a chronic model of compressive SCI in rodents, we disturbed CSPGs with intrathecal infusion of chondroitinase ABC (ChABC) for 7 d. Then, we transplanted the same chronically injured rats with NPCs and transiently supplemented the spinal cord with the intrathecal infusion of a GF cocktail containing epidermal growth factors (EGF), fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF-AA). We provide strong evidence that this combinatorial approach markedly increases the long-term survival of NPCs and greatly optimizes their migration and integration in the chronically injured spinal cord. Furthermore, we demonstrate multiple mechanisms by which this combinatorial strategy facilitates neuroanatomical plasticity of the chronically injured spinal with improved locomotor recovery and without promoting aberrant plasticity of spinal cord pain pathways or exacerbating posttraumatic neuropathic pain.
This is exciting. Not just this specific study, but the trajectory of the SCI research field is exciting.
This study is only the beginning. Within two years (by 1/1/2012), I'm confident that at least one combination therapy that includes neuron replacement will prove effective in animal models. By the end of 2012 (i.e., 12/31/2012), I'm confident that at least one combination therapy will bring significant functional return in humans.
This will happen.
Support your local scientists.
Support your local SCINet.
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