A new compound, ISP, shows promise in restoring functions lost by paralyzing injury to the spinal cord in rats.
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The research looked at ways of overcoming scarring when nerve fibers in the spinal cord are damaged and signals from the brain no longer reach muscles below the injury site. Nerve fibers try to cross the injury site and reconnect with other fibers, but become trapped at the scar site by sticky proteins called proteoglycans. ISP is designed to act on the receptor on the surface of the nerve cells which turns off a response to the proteoglycans that causes the blockage. ISP induced ‘sprouting’ of these fibers below the injury site.
During the experiment, 26 rats were given severe spinal cord injuries followed by daily injections of ISP for seven weeks. 21 of the 26 regained one or more of three functions - the ability to walk, to balance and to control when and how much they urinated. Some of them regained all three, others one or two, and five none of the functions.
The study is published in the journal Nature.
Source-Medindia