New hope on spinal injury

[Duran]

Scientists are on the brink of a major potential breakthrough in the repair of spinal cord injuries.

Action Medical Research, a national charity, has said that the work at the Cambridge University Centre for Brain Repair may bring new hope to people paralysed as a result of broken backs and necks.

In the UK there are more than 40,000 people with spinal injuries, which can take the form of anything from loss of sensation to full paralysis.

The problem facing neurologists has been that the body cannot repair damage to the brain or spinal cord.

Although nerves can regenerate, they are blocked by the scar tissue at the site of the spinal injury.

Professor James Fawcett's Cambridge-based team believes it is close to a clinical treatment that could allow nerve fibres to regenerate within the spinal cord and encourage remaining nerve fibres to work more effectively.

More on:

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liver...0252-20473616/

[vito]

Scientists are on the brink of a major potential breakthrough in the repair of spinal cord injuries.

Action Medical Research, a national charity, has said that the work at the Cambridge University Centre for Brain Repair may bring new hope to people paralysed as a result of broken backs and necks.

In the UK there are more than 40,000 people with spinal injuries, which can take the form of anything from loss of sensation to full paralysis.

The problem facing neurologists has been that the body cannot repair damage to the brain or spinal cord.

Although nerves can regenerate, they are blocked by the scar tissue at the site of the spinal injury.

Professor James Fawcett's Cambridge-based team believes it is close to a clinical treatment that could allow nerve fibres to regenerate within the spinal cord and encourage remaining nerve fibres to work more effectively.

More on:

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liver...0252-20473616/

This link is not working!

[Curt Leatherbee]

More about Acorda, been hearing about them for years. Link worked ok for me.

[Romeo]

These news sound interesting, so I wanted to find out more.
Here is a link where you can see all the so called " therapies" that Acorda is developing or has developed http://www.acorda.com/pipeline.asp
To find out more about the enzyme that is mentioned in the article, click on CHONDROITINASE. And by the way if it passed Pre-Clinical trials does it mean that it showed significant results in animal models?
Regarding the Fampridine SR , thats the 4-AP right?

[Schmeky]

Regarding the Fampridine SR , thats the 4-AP right?

Yes.

It's interesting how many "reports" similiar to this one I have read for nearly 6 years, that after a while, just fade away.

[manouli]

Last Updated: Sunday, 17 February 2008, 00:01 GMT

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Spinal injury regeneration hope

Spinal injuries are very difficult to treat
Scientists believe they are close to a significant breakthrough in the treatment of spinal injuries.
The University of Cambridge team is developing a treatment which could potentially allow damaged nerve fibres to regenerate within the spinal cord.

It may also encourage the remaining undamaged nerve fibres to work more effectively.

Spinal injuries are difficult to treat because the body cannot repair damage to the brain or spinal cord.

We are very hopeful that at last we may be able to offer paralysed patients a treatment to improve their condition

Professor James Fawcett
University of Cambridge

Although it is possible for nerves to regenerate, they are blocked by the scar tissue that forms at the site of the spinal injury.

The Cambridge team has identified a bacteria enzyme called chondroitinase which is capable of digesting molecules within scar tissue to allow some nerve fibres to regrow.

The enzyme also promotes nerve plasticity, which potentially means that remaining undamaged nerve fibres have an increased likelihood of making new connections that could bypass the area of damage.



more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7240898.stm