Spinal Cord Injury Articles Posted by Manouli

[manouli]

Growth Factor Therapy Alters Cells that Prevent Spinal Cord Repair

Posted: 10/19/2011


COLUMBUS, Ohio – Scientists at The Ohio State University College of Medicine have discovered that cells in the spinal cord that prevent regeneration after a spinal cord injury (SCI) can be manipulated, through gene therapy, to become increasingly supportive of repair.

The study, published yesterday (10/18) in the Journal of Neuroscience, shows that treating an injured adult spinal cord, by genetic delivery of a high-level growth factor found in the developing brain, can change the behavior of glial scar cells called astrocytes.
Astrocytes are cells found throughout the brain and spinal cord that normally support the nerve cells and keep them healthy. When an injury occurs, they protect the neurons by forming a scar that walls off the injury, but this wall prevents repair as the nerve fibers, called axons, try to re-grow.

read...

http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/mediaro...rd-Repair.aspx

[manouli]

Kessler Foundation Identifies Six Participants to Test Ekso
10-17-2011 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WEST ORANGE, N.J. — Kessler Foundation, in collaboration with Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, announced that it has selected six participants for the Ekso exoskeleton investigational studies, which will commence October 17. Made by Ekso Bionics, Ekso is a wearable, robotic, battery-powered exoskeleton that enables wheelchair users to stand and walk.

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http://www.kesslerfoundation.org/med...ase.php?id=158

[manouli]

Spinal cord breakthrough with acne drug 0


By Sean McCann ,Calgary Sun



University of Calgary researchers working on a spinal cord injury treatment are getting some help from the Man in Motion.

The Rick Hansen Institute is helping to fund work on an old drug that shows new promise treating spinal cord injuries (SCI).

Dr. John Hurlbert, along with co-investigators Dr. Steven Casha and Dr. Voon Wee Yong have found that minocycline — originally used to treat acne — helps restore movement in patients suffering from SCI.

“We looked at this drug in a mouse model and the results were fascinating,” Hurlbert said.

“Not only did their ability to walk improve, but their spinal cords looked better under the microscope.”

Hurlbert said minocycline outperformed the standard treatment for SCI — a drug called methylprednisolone — in mice studies.

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http://www.calgarysun.com/2011/10/11...with-acne-drug

[manouli]

NJIT Researcher Testing Micro-Electronic Stimulators for Spinal Cord Injuries
Wednesday, October 19, 2011



NEWARK–A new wireless device to help victims of spinal cord injury is receiving attention in the research community. Mesut Sahin, PhD, associate professor, in the department of biomedical engineering at NJIT, recently has published and presented news of his findings to develop micro-electrical stimulators for individuals with spinal cord injuries.

The work, now in its third year of support from a four-year, $1.4 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, has resulted in the development and testing of a technology known by its acronym, FLAMES (floating light activated micro-electrical stimulators). The technology, really a tiny semiconductor device, will eventually enable people with spinal cord injuries to restore some of the motor functions that are lost due to injury. Energized by an infrared light beam through an optical fiber located just outside the spinal cord these micro-stimulators will activate the nerves in the spinal cord below the point of injury and thus allow the use of the muscles that were once paralyzed.



Read more: http://njtoday.net/2011/10/19/njit-r...#ixzz1bLC4IsIy
Tell everyone to get New Jersey News from WWW.NJTODAY.NET

[manouli]

Industry Updates: Oct 20, 2011

Geron Presents Clinical Data Update From GRNOPC1 Spinal Cord Injury Trial

Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN) today announced two presentations on the company’s ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial of its human embryonic stem cell-based therapy, GRNOPC1, in patients with spinal cord injury. Safety data were presented at the Pre-Conference Symposia of the joint 2011 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and American Society of Neuro-Radiology Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA. A second presentation was given at the Working 2 Walk 2011 conference in Rockville, MD. The presentations were given by Joseph Gold, Ph.D., Geron’s Senior Director of Neurobiology and Stem Cell Therapies and Linda Jones, P.T., M.S., Geron’s Senior Clinical Trials Manager for GRNOPC1.

“We are pleased to report that the lowest intended dose of GRNOPC1 has been administered to four patients with complete thoracic spinal cord injuries,” said Stephen M. Kelsey, M.D., Geron’s Head of Research & Development and Chief Medical Officer. “To date, GRNOPC1 has been well tolerated with no serious adverse events.”

Phase 1 Clinical Trial Data

continue....

http://www.genengnews.com/industry-u...ial/131970171/

[manouli]

I like this article, I'll post it at the other site too so people can talk.




Preliminary Human Experiments to Test Safety of Nerve Cell Transplants for Spinal Cord Paralysis
The new approach, currently being studied by the FDA for phase I trials, avoids the problems of immunological rejection and the controversy around the use of embryonic stem cells

By R. Douglas Fields | October 19, 2011

ROCKVILLE, Md.—A new experiment aimed at achieving actor Christopher Reeve 's dream of finding an effective treatment for spinal paralysis was announced this week at an international meeting of scientists and people with spinal cord injury sponsored by the United 2 Fight Paralysis Foundation. The approach, which already is shown to be promising in animals and avoids the need for patients to take immunosuppressive drugs, has not yet been proved effective in humans. Nonetheless, patients are excited to see this advance as they have been frustrated waiting for the first human trials of the new approach.

W. Dalton Dietrich, scientific director of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, announced here that his research team has submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for permission to begin new "phase I" experiments on humans to treat paralysis using the new cell transplantation technique. (Phase I trials have nothing to do with efficacy. They are only to test safety and typically a nontherapeutic dose is used at the outset of the safety studies.) With the new technique, rather than using cells derived from embryonic stem cells, the patient's own mature cells are harvested from a nerve in the leg and grown in large numbers in the laboratory, then transplanted back into the injured spinal cord to repair damage. This approach avoids the problems of immunological rejection and the controversy that can arise from using cells derived from embryonic stem cells for treating neurological injury and disease. Typically, patients receiving an organ or tissue transplant from a donor must be given immunosupressant drugs to prevent their immune systems from attacking the foreign tissue.

The cells being used for transplantation are Schwann cells, a type of non-neuronal cell (glia) that protects and insulates nerve fibers running through the body's limbs and trunk. Schwann cells also support the repair of damaged neurons; they provide vital proteins that protect nerve cells after injury, coax new nerve sprouts (axons) to grow and reconnect with the proper structures, and wrap electrical insulation, myelin, around the fibers, which is essential for axons to conduct electrical impulses. Unlike damage to the spinal cord, an injured nerve in the body can repair itself.

read...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...nt-nerve-cells

[manouli]

Paralysed teenager given free stem cell storage
Helen McArdle

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20 Oct 2011

A SCOTS teenager paralysed in a car crash days after receiving an offer of a place at Oxford University has become one of the first people to store his stem cells in the hope they might be used in future to repair his injury.

Sam Dickinson, 19, from Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, gave a blood sample from which stem cells were extracted and stored at the Oristem facility in Glasgow, the UK’s first adult stem cell bank which opened in June.

It is hoped as science advances, the ultra-naïve pluripotent adult stem cells could be used in everything from treating cancer and dementia to regenerating damaged tissue, including spinal trauma.

The service normally costs just under £3000 but Sam was offered the chance to store his stem calls at the centre, operated by Glasgow-based firm Pharmacells, for free after the company’s non-executive director, Professor Andrew Porter, heard of his experience.

more....

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/h...rage-1.1130186

[manouli]

Spinal cord injury program receives £1.4m funding


21 October 2011
A $2.2 million (£1.4m) grant has been donated to a spinal cord injury program, potentially bringing hope to those with the condition.

The University of Louisville and Frazier Rehab Institute are to establish a new program to broaden their research and care in spinal cord injury cases.

more...

http://www.seriousinjurylaw.co.uk/ne...4m-funding.php

[manouli]

Bionic breakthrough helps a paralyzed Morris Plains woman get back on her feet

Published: Sunday, October 23, 2011, 10:00 AM Updated: Sunday, October 23, 2011, 10:22 AM
By Seth Augenstein/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger
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Day One:

Laurie Kammer slipped into the embrace of the high-tech backpack, connected to the lightweight black braces that ran down her unresponsive legs. Then, after some coaching, she stood on her feet and took her first steps since the fall in June that broke her back, leaving her paralyzed.

Shuffling forward slowly, leaning on a walker with the help of four physical therapists, she moved six inches at a time. Within an hour, there were only two therapists spotting her, and her steps were more measured as she shifted her weight with each therapist’s push of the step button. By the end of the day, the 27-year-old woman traveled a total of 341 steps over 20 determined minutes of walking in the second-floor gym at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange.

A wearable robot

They call it a wearable robot. Basically, a motorized exoskeleton first conceived to greatly amplify the strength of soldiers, it was once the staple of science fiction writers. Sigourney Weaver strapped one on to even the odds in a cinematic fight with a deadly creature in the movie “Aliens.” It took the form of a fighting machine in “Avatar.”

Now researchers are studying a new use for the bionic technology — enabling paralyzed people to walk again.

A number of companies are testing such devices, including California-based Ekso Bionics, which this year has been demonstrating a prototype to rehabilitation centers around the country.

The Ekso machine has four motors and 15 sensors that mimic the normal human gait.
It was originally conceived by the University of California-Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Lab. In 2005 the company was spun out of the lab and soon after it licensed the technology to Lockheed Martin to develop exoskeltons for soldiers to carry heavy loads.

Though a prototype to help paraplegics was in the works at the University of California-Berkeley almost a decade ago, the latest and future versions are a product of constant revisions and refinements, the company said.

Its current version — constructed of titanium, aluminum, stainless steel, plastics and carbon fiber — weighs about 45 pounds, and is custom-fitted to each user. It essentially maneuvers patients’ legs to walk, as they work their arms with canes and keep their forward balance.

At Kessler, six patients spent time last week training on the Ekso exoskeletons, in a prelude to a national research study that will begin next year.

Day Two


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http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201...elps_a_pa.html

[manouli]

Public release date: 24-Oct-2011
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Contact: Amanda Bates
amanda@curvecommunications.com
604-306-0027
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada

Spinal cord injuries associated with increased risk of heart disease



Vancouver – New research from the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation may help explain why people with spinal cord injury (SCI) have a higher risk of developing heart disease.

Damage to the autonomic nervous system is a key predictor of cardiovascular risk, researcher Rianne Ravensbergen told the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2011, co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.

Heart disease after a SCI is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in this population. It is well known that regular exercise is beneficial for cardiovascular health. However, for people with SCI, says Ravensbergen, a PhD candidate supervised by Dr. Victoria Claydon in the cardiovascular physiology laboratory at Simon Fraser University, exercise is only part of the story. "In this specific group we should also be looking at whether they have autonomic dysfunction, because this causes a higher risk for heart disease."

more....

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-sci101811.php