NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Blocking a specific immune response that occurs right after a spinal cord injury may lessen the ultimate damage, research in mice suggests.
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Scientists are currently designing clinical trials to see whether the method will translate to humans. If it does, they say, it would be possible to preserve more tissue, nerve connections, and, most importantly, more of patients' mobility and functioning after spinal cord trauma.
The treatment uses an antibody to block a specific type of cell, called CXCL-10, which recruits immune system T cells to the site of a spinal cord injury. T cells normally protect the body from viruses and other foreign invaders; but research has shown that when T cells flock to the central nervous system in response to injury, they release compounds that further the damage of the initial trauma to the spine.
This so-called "secondary damage" can substantially compound the effects of the original injury and be "the main contributor" to functional impairment, Dr. Hans S. Keirstead, an author of the new study, told Reuters Health.
He and his colleagues at the University of California Irvine report their findings in the journal Experimental Neurology.
In the study, the researchers treated spine-injured mice with an engineered antibody against CXCL-10. They found that, compared with untreated mice, those given the antibody showed far fewer T cells and less tissue damage around the spine. And in the days following the injury, the treated mice showed progressive improvement in mobility.
Keirstead said the research solidifies the importance of CXCL-10 in spinal cord damage, and marks it as a target for drug treatment. The substance is present in the central nervous system only for a short time after
trauma, so the hope is that blocking its action with a single antibody injection in the hours after a spinal cord injury will prevent secondary damage.
Such tissue sparing, Keirstead explained, would give spine-injury patients much more to work with in rehabilitation. But while he said the potential functional benefit is "tremendous," Keirstead also urged caution, as the research is only in its early stages.
SOURCE: Experimental Neurology, November 2003.