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Spinal Cord Trauma Blog
Related terms: Spinal Cord Injury, Paraplegia, Quadriplegia, Tetraplegia
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A Drug to Cure Spinal Cord Injuries?
Posted 16 Jul 2010 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Oct. 15 – Researchers have identified a potential target for drug treatment of spinal cord injuries. Cells in spinal cord scar tissue release molecules that prevent severed nerve fibers from passing the damaged area and making new connections that would restore feeling and movement. In the new study, researchers identified where these molecules – chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) – bind to the surface of neurons. This location may offer a target for drug therapy. Scientists have been searching for this "docking station" for nearly two decades. It was known that CSPGs inhibit regeneration of nerve fibers, but it wasn't known how the molecules did it, explained senior study author John Flanagan, a professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, in a Harvard news release. Now that the site where CSPGs bind to neurons is identified, researchers can begin looking for ... Read more
Related support groups: Spinal Cord Trauma
Gene-Targeted Therapy Might Help Prevent Paralysis
Posted 21 Apr 2010 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, April 21 – A study in rats is raising new hope for a treatment that might help spare people with injured spines from the paralysis that often follows such trauma. Researchers found that by immediately giving injured rats a drug that acts on a specific gene, they could halt the dangerous bleeding that occurs at the site of spinal damage. That's important, because this bleeding is often a major cause of paralysis linked to spinal cord injury, the researchers say. In spinal cord injury, fractured or dislocated bone can crush or damage axons, the long branches of nerve cells that transmit messages from the body to the brain. But post-injury bleeding at the site, called progressive hemorrhagic necrosis, can make these injuries worse, explained study author Dr. J. Marc Simard, a professor of neurosurgery, pathology and physiology at University of Maryland School of Medicine in ... Read more
Related support groups: Spinal Cord Trauma
New Hope for Brain, Spinal Cord Injuries
Posted 13 Dec 2009 by Drugs.com
FRIDAY, Dec. 11 – Deleting a gene that suppresses natural growth factors enables regeneration of injured nerve fibers (axons) in mice, a new study shows. The finding may lead to new treatments for people with brain and spinal cord injuries. Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston deleted the gene SOCS3 – an inhibitor of a growth pathway called mTOR – in the retinal ganglion cells of mice. These cells are in the optic nerve, which carries signals from the eyes to the brain. Removel of SOCS3 resulted in vigorous growth of injured axons. The greatest improvement was seen after one week, when the researchers also detected signs that the mTOR pathway was re-activated. Axon growth increased even more when the researchers applied a growth factor called ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) directly to the eye of mice in which SOCS3 had been deleted. But CNTF only modestly boosted axon growth ... Read more
Related support groups: Spinal Cord Trauma