Regenerate the spinal cord to treat spinal injuries? A new path opens up
In 2018, a study published in Nature identified a therapeutic approach that stimulated the regeneration of axons – the tiny fibers that connect nerve cells and allow them to communicate – after spinal cord injury in rodents. However, although this approach had successfully led to axon regeneration through severe spinal cord injury, achieving functional recovery remained a significant challenge.
For the new study, published this week in Science , the team sought to determine whether directing axon regeneration from specific neuronal subpopulations to their natural target regions could lead to significant functional recovery after spinal cord injury in mice. First, they used advanced genetic analyzes to identify clusters of nerve cells that enable improved walking after a partial spinal cord injury.
The researchers then found that simply regenerating axons from these nerve cells across the spinal cord injury without specific guidance had no impact on functional recovery. However, when the strategy was refined to include the use of chemical signals to attract and guide the regeneration of these axons to their natural target region in the lumbar spinal cord, significant improvements in walking ability were observed in a mouse model of complete spinal cord injury.
“Our research provides important insights into the complexities of axon regeneration and the requirements for meaningful neurologic recovery after spinal cord injury,” said Michael Sofroniew, MD, PhD, professor of neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and one of the senior authors of the new study. “It highlights the need to not only regenerate axons across injuries, but also actively guide them to reach their natural target regions to achieve significant neurological recovery.”
The authors argue that understanding the restoration of projections of specific neuronal subpopulations to their natural target regions offers significant promise for the development of therapies aimed at restoring neurological functions in larger animals and humans by “steering” axon development. However, researchers also recognize the complexity of promoting regeneration over longer distances in non-rodents, which requires strategies with complex spatial and temporal characteristics.
However, they conclude that applying the principles outlined in their work “will unlock the framework for achieving meaningful repair of the injured spinal cord and may accelerate repair after other forms of central nervous system injury and disease.”
In short, a step forward, not the solution, to a serious problem.
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The article Regenerate the spinal cord to treat spinal injuries? A new road opens up comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/rigenerare-il-midollo-per-curare-lesioni-spinali-si-apre-una-nuova-strada/ on Sun, 24 Sep 2023 12:30:46 +0000.