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Paralysed mice walk again after a single injection
A new therapy, developed by researchers in the USA, has successfully reversed paralysis and repaired severe spinal cord injuries in mice. The animals regained the ability to walk only four weeks after a single injection of the treatment.
"Our research aims to find a therapy that can prevent individuals from becoming paralysed after major trauma or disease," said Prof Samuel I Stupp of Northwestern University, who led the study. "For decades, this has remained a major challenge for scientists because our body's central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord, does not have any significant capacity to repair itself after injury or after the onset of a degenerative disease."
When the therapy is injected, the liquid immediately forms a network of nanofibres matching the structure around the spinal cord. The difficulty then is in communicating with the body's cells.
[...] "The key innovation in our research, which has never been done before, is to control the collective motion of more than 100,000 molecules within our nanofibres," he said. "By making the molecules move, 'dance' or even leap temporarily out of these structures, known as supramolecular polymers, they are able to connect more effectively with [cellular] receptors."
Also at ScienceAlert.
Journal Reference:
Z. Álvarez, A. N. Kolberg-Edelbrock, I. R. Sasselli, et al. Bioactive scaffolds with enhanced supramolecular motion promote recovery from spinal cord injury, Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.abh3602)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday November 19 2021, @04:08PM (8 children)
Let's hope the same effects obtain in the human trials. The results with the mice are dramatic.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Immerman on Friday November 19 2021, @05:04PM (1 child)
You said it. Spinal cord injuries are probably the most horribly crippling injuries we can survive - arguably even worse than amputations, whose impacts can at least usually be mitigated with prosthetics.
Even if could only restore enough mobility in humans to make it easier to use the bathroom unaided, that would still be a huge quality of life improvement for a lot of people.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 19 2021, @06:10PM
Having people wipe my anus for me is a special luxury. If these lazy cripples can't be bothered doing it themselves, they can sit in their own mess for all I care. They need to get a job and pay their own damn healthcare bills. DIE DIE DIE.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by mhajicek on Friday November 19 2021, @05:29PM (1 child)
I'm hopeful that this will be effective for stroke and Alzheimer's, as suggested at the end of the article. Just lost my mom to those.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 20 2021, @01:41AM
Those are some of the most brutal ailments to strike a person. Condolences.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MIRV888 on Saturday November 20 2021, @02:07AM (3 children)
If this treatment pans out for humans, it would improve the lives of thousands of people in a huge, huge way.
Medical science is getting very star trek, very quickly.
I wish I had 100 more years to see how far we go.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 20 2021, @02:18AM (1 child)
> I wish I had 100 more years to see how far we go.
Maybe you do--if the cures come as fast as your ailments...assuming you can pay for the cures.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday November 20 2021, @02:23AM
It's a tough call. Many of these exciting developments take another couple of decades to translate into anything useful.
Ultimately, some kind of nanobot gray goo is probably needed to keep humans alive indefinitely. The nature of that could make it very cheap after rich early adopters get their hit.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 20 2021, @12:12PM