Research Links

November 2, 2006 (EurekAlert!, University of Southern California)- A breakthrough finding on the mechanism of myelin formation by Jonah Chan, assistant professor of cell and neurobiology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, could have a major impact on the treatment of diseases such as multiple sclerosis and demyelination as a result of spinal cord injuries.

Myelin, the white matter that coats all nerves, allows long-distance communication in the nervous system. "It plays a vital role in the overall health and function of the nervous system, and its degeneration plays a role in a number of diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, peripheral neuropathies, and even in spinal cord injury," Chan explained...

November 27, 2006 (PRNewswire)- Six-week Follow-up Results of Phase I/IIa Trial Show Safety, Tolerability and Neurological Outcome of Cethrin(R): BioAxone Therapeutic announced today positive interim results on its Phase I/IIa North American dose escalation clinical trial on Cethrin® for the treatment of acute spinal cord injury (SCI). The Company reported that data on safety, tolerability and neurological outcome from the six-week follow-up of the trial of Cethrin® at four dose levels (0.3, 1, 3 and 6 mg) indicates that this treatment is safe and well tolerated and that the functional benefit may be dose dependent...

November 13. 2006 (centredaily.com)- Tim Reynolds, co-founder of a thriving Wall Street trading firm, has a personal interest in research to repair spinal cord damage. Six years ago, he was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident.

While Reynolds has been able to continue working and enjoying his family, he said he often thinks of the difficulties faced by the 250,000 other Americans with damaged spinal cords.

"We spend all this money to keep people alive in dark apartments watching television or in assisted living centers," Reynolds, 40, told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Monday's newspapers. "But not enough is being done to help cure their injuries...

By Jonathan H. Zippin, David R. Huron, Margarita Kamenetsky and Ulrich Hengst, November 10, 2006 (Newswise.com, Weill Cornell Medical College)- An enzyme called sAC helps spur the growth of nerve endings in the developing embryo, and might also be used to someday regrow these "axons" in adults paralyzed by spinal cord injury.

The discovery, by a team of researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, is reported in last month's issue of Nature Neuroscience...

November 3, 2006 (EurekAlert!, Massachusetts General Hospital)- MGH study first to identify factors controlling growth of brain cells damaged in ALS:
A growth factor known to be important for the survival of many types of cells stimulates rapid extension of corticospinal motor neurons – critical brain cells that connect the cerebral cortex with the spinal cord and that die in motor neuron diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease). In the November 2006 issue of Nature Neuroscience, two investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute describe how insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) dramatically increases the in vitro growth of corticospinal motor neuron (CSMN) axons – projections that carry nerve impulses to the spinal motor neurons that connect to muscles – and that blocking IGF-1 activity reduces that growth in both cultured cells and in living mice.

By Alexandre Rasouli et.al., 2006 (The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery)- Background: Recovery after injury to the peripheral nervous system is based on the pro-regenerative relationship between axons and the extracellular matrix, a relationship established by Schwann cells. As mechanical conditioning of Schwann cells has been shown to stimulate their regenerative behavior, we sought to determine whether transplantation of these cells to the central nervous system (i.e., the spinal cord), with its limited regenerative capacity after injury, would improve axonal regeneration and functional recovery...

November 2, 2006 (Hemscott, AFX News)- Stem Cell Sciences PLC said its Neural Stem Cells (NS cells) are to enter pre-clinical testing for spinal cord injury in a collaboration with Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI) at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

The initial study, whose results are expected in the first quarter of 2007, will examine the ability of the NS cells to provide functional improvements in models of spinal cord injury at REMEDI, the biotechnology company said in a statement...

November 1, 2006 (CNW Group)- An international team of scientists, lead
by Dr. Frederic Charron at the IRCM, and Drs Ami Okada, Sue McConnell, and Marc Tessier-Lavigne in the USA, have made a discovery which could help treat spinal cord injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. This new finding will be published in the next issue of the prestigious scientific journal Nature.
    The brain is composed of billions of neurons that must connect their
axons with an appropriate set of targets to form the neuronal circuits that
underlie its function. Developing axons are guided to their targets by
attractive and repulsive guidance molecules. Inappropriate wiring or damage of these neuronal connections leads to severe abnormalities of the nervous
system...

By Roxanne Khamsi, October 26, 2006 (NewScientist.com)- Fasting may improve recovery from spinal cord injury, according to a new rodent study.

Injured rats that were only fed on alternate days showed half the spinal cord damage compared with their normally fed counterparts after several months. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that calorie restriction can boost recovery from a variety of injuries.

Ward Plunet at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues created lesions in the spinal cords of a group of rats. Half of the animals were able to eat whenever they wanted, while the other “fasting” half were fed only every other day...

By Cecilia Oleck, October 6, 2006 (Detroit Free Press)- Dayna Schultz looks as if there is an earthquake going on under her feet.

She stands ramrod-straight, teeth clenched, gripping a gray walker for support as her body shakes like a jackhammer, the walker every so often slipping off the side of the large metal plate she is on.

Yet for all the motion, Schultz, 19, of Morris, Minn., is calm. The vibrations she experiences aren't the result of seismic shifting. They're part of a therapy called whole body vibration...