[Apparelyzed]

Experimental therapy could offer new way to treat spine damage

Medical Science News

Published: Monday, 15-Aug-2005


An experimental therapy that combines stem cells and gene therapy to repair spinal cord injuries in rats may lead to a new way to treat the same injury in humans.

The therapy, described in the July 27 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, shows significant potential for repairing the spinal cord by regenerating a protective coating on the nervous system, said lead researcher Scott Whittemore of the University of Louisville.

"Other scientists have suggested this technique, but our study is the first to show that it really works," said Whittemore, the University of Louisville Henry D. Garretson Endowed Chair in Spinal Cord Injury Research and scientific director of the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center.

Injuries to the spinal cord can damage myelin, a coating that protects the nervous system much like the insulation around an electrical cord. When myelin is damaged or destroyed, the nerves surrounding the spine cannot adequately conduct signals to and from the brain.

Whittemore found that stem cells grafted onto damaged spinal cords in rats can develop into cells that make myelin, which in turn grows and migrates to the damaged tissue. The new cells grow even faster when combined with a gene therapy that boosts production of two substances that help nerves survive and mature, he said.

"The key word here is 'combination,'" said Naomi Kleitman of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. "This is one of a series of new studies showing that a combination of therapies is needed for successful spinal repair."

Whittemore's study was funded by NINDS, National Institutes of Health, Kentucky Spinal Cord and Head Injury Research Trust, Norton Healthcare and several private foundations.

An initial $8.5 million Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant from the National Institutes of Health has been renewed, Whittemore announced Aug. 1. The grant will provide $10.4 million over five years.

This is the first COBRE grant at U of L to be renewed and signals the NIH's confidence in the research being undertaken at KSCIRC, said Larry Cook, executive vice president for health affairs.

Researchers at the center, one of the largest spinal cord injury research centers in the United States, are exploring ways to:

* prevent loss of nerve tissue after spinal injury promote regeneration of sensory and motor function after spinal cord injury rebuild the neural circuitry that controls locomotion modulate chemical pathways that control cell survival and cell death discover molecules that regulate spinal cord development
* use gene therapy for spinal cord repair.

Since 1998, Whittemore and other faculty at the Kentucky spinal cord research center have received more than $32.5 million in research support aimed at developing new ways to repair spine injuries.

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=12476

[pierre]

we've head that for more than 10 years but no one never try on humain with success is always about rat nothing more after that
i'm sorry i no longer want to hear about this story antil the day they will say we have successfuly repair spinal cord in real patient
i'm sorry if i've been negatif

[Bob Clark]

Hi Pierre,

I've been hearing about this type of "hopeful" news since becoming paralyzed 26 years ago. If they could successfully regenerate the spinal cord in human beings tomorrow and make it reconnect itself perfectly it would still be years before the treatment would become available to most of us. And it won't be like you get a spinal injection one day and the next you're up and walking around and playing football (soccer). It will take months and even years for you or me to re-learn how to walk and to do all the other things we used to take for granted. And there's no guarantee that our muscles, bones, connective tissues, nerves, etceteras will ever be able to return to the condition they were in prior to becoming paralyzed. And the pain may be so great from our bodies being atrophied for so long that the cure may be worse than the condition itself. It will mainly be determined by how long each of us has been paralyzed and what shape we've managed to keep our bodies in. So while hope is a good thing, don't get your hopes up!

As soon as there's a viable treatment for paralysis we will all hear about it on the 6 o'clock news and on the front page of every newspaper in the world. If you don't like to keep current about the research going on because it's such a slow and labourious process and doesn't hold out an immediate treatment or cure then don't put yourself through the anguish and read about it. This is the "Spinal Cord Injury Research, Cure & Paralysis Treatment News" forum and some of us like to keep informed on the subject.

And there is nothing preventing you or me from contributing to the effort. If you haven't at least donated some money to the research effort then there really isn't much room for you (or any of us who haven't) to complain. Even if it's only a few £s. Or perhaps you could go to medical school and become a researcher in the field and help out with the effort in that way. No one is "entitled" to a cure.

Don't curse the darkness, light a lamp.... or:

If you want it done right then do it yourself....or:

Any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a carpenter to build one.

By the way, how are you making out with your immigration problem?

[pierre]

hi
i''m not puting curse on the reseach i'm just stress when i read about breacktrout in
sc research and at the conclusion they will say they still a long way to go before any trial
my advice to them will be to do all the research and bring the info out when they're ready for the trial so that we don't have to dream for something that we wont live to see it happen
i'm sorry their word that i don't know how to write in english to realy express myself i hope people understant what i mean
for my immigration proplem no help came i'm just waiting for my deportation i'm still waiting for any king of help or advice
regards

[AHolland]

I guess I do like to read about all the medical work being done with regards to Spinal Cord Research.

One of the first thing I, or other injured patients ask upon waking up from a serious accident is, "will I walk again." I asked this question of the doctor who operated on me, and he essentially crapped on me and said, "you'll never walk again. Stop even thinking about it." Yes, his bedside manner was about as bad as it could be. Maybe he had been asked that question too many times and wanted to shut down all thoughts of it. Others basically told me the same thing. Nerves do not regrow so stop holding out hope.

Well, time has gone by and I am still holding out hope. Some times it's the only thing that I have to look forward to after one of those lousy days we all have. I am realistic in knowing that no cure will help me for probably a decade. At least I am realistic. Still, without hope we have nothing, and I still have hope. Probably in the back of his mind, and old codger like Bob still has hope.

Yes I believe Bob when he sais the road to recovery would be long and hard. It's not like we have not had a long and hard road to this point in our lives. What's a bit more. The alternative is a long and hard road without a cure. Okay, I'm convinced. I'll take the long and hard road to recovery if there is a cure.

For once it looks like medicine may get a handle on nerve regeneration, but not without some bumps in the road like every other discovery has had. I would just like to be here to read the story as it unfolds.

[ash]

hi
reading these positive posts about a cure is so helpful and encouraging. its my boyfriend who has a sci not me, and everyday he looks at different websites to read the latest "breakthough" news.
i can see where pierre is coming from as nothing concrete comes from this stories but without the little progressions, we'll never get there, keep ur spirits up xx
some doctors have also told my bf how to get used to the disability rather than how to get over it, this is the attitude of some one whos glass is always half empty.
one day, it will happen and its lovely to see (hear?) that after some of your lenghty waits, ur hope has not faded. i do honestly believe that a cure will be found.
please remember, that in life, youre only given what you can deal with

le gra
ash xx