American scientists have found a new type of drug that facilitates cell renewal and prevents paralysis in mice with severed spines, enabling them to walk after four weeks of treatment.
The Northwestern University team, whose research was published in the journal “Science” on Thursday, hopes that this drug will be submitted early next year to the US Food and Drug Administration to suggest human trials.
Professor Samuel Stabb, who led the study, explained that the aim was to find a drug “that can be given to humans and used in hospitals to prevent paralyzing people who have been exposed to major trauma or who suffer from diseases.”
Medicine has long sought a cure for paralysis, and other experimental treatments are being explored.
The one tested by Samuel Stubb uses nanofibers to mimic the structure of the “extracellular matrix”, a network of molecules that naturally develops around cell tissues.
Each nanofiber, 10,000 times thinner than a hair, is made up of hundreds of thousands of molecules called peptides that transmit signals to aid nerve regeneration.
The drug, which comes in the form of a gel, was injected into the tissues surrounding the spinal cord of lab mice 24 hours after their spinal cord was cut off.
The researchers decided to wait 24 hours because people with spinal injuries from traffic accidents, gunshot wounds or other trauma do not receive treatment immediately.
After four weeks, the treated mice were walking roughly as they did before the injury, while the untreated mice could not walk.
Then the mice were dissected to examine the effect of the treatment at the level of cells, and the researchers noticed a significant improvement in the spinal cord of those that received the treatment. The severed extensions of nerve cells, called axons, regenerated, and the scar tissue that could be an obstacle to regeneration became very reduced.
In addition, a protective layer of the axons important for transmitting electrical signals re-formed, blood vessels developed that supply nutrients to the affected cells, and a greater number of motor neurons survived.
This is because neuron receptors are naturally in constant motion, explains Samuel Stubb, in addition to making the therapeutic molecules inside the nanofibers “dance” helps attach them to their moving targets.
The researchers tested two versions of the drug, one with and without the mutation, and found that mice that received the modified version regained greater motor ability.
The gel developed by this team of researchers is the first of its kind, but it could lead to a new generation of drugs called “supermolecular drugs”, consisting of a group of molecules rather than a single molecule, Stubb explained.
The researcher confirmed that the drug is safe because the substances degrade within weeks and become nourishing for cells.
He hoped to move quickly to testing in humans without the need to perform them on other animals such as primates, explaining that there is not much difference between the nervous systems of different types of mammals.
“Currently, the lack of treatment for spinal cord injuries is a major problem,” he recalled.
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