Barrier-breaking drug may lead to spinal cord injury treatments

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

3-Dec-2014

Contact: Christopher Thomas thomaschr@ninds.nih.gov 301-496-5751 NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Injections of a new drug may partially relieve paralyzing spinal cord injuries, based on indications from a study in rats, which was partly funded by the National Institutes of Health

The results demonstrate how fundamental laboratory research may lead to new therapies.

"We're very excited at the possibility that millions of people could, one day, regain movements lost during spinal cord injuries," said Jerry Silver, Ph.D., professor of neurosciences, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, and a senior investigator of the study published in Nature.

Every year, tens of thousands of people are paralyzed by spinal cord injuries. The injuries crush and sever the long axons of spinal cord nerve cells, blocking communication between the brain and the body and resulting in paralysis below the injury.

On a hunch, Bradley Lang, Ph.D., the lead author of the study and a graduate student in Dr. Silver's lab, came up with the idea of designing a drug that would help axons regenerate without having to touch the healing spinal cord, as current treatments may require.

"Originally this was just a side project we brainstormed in the lab," said Dr. Lang.

After spinal cord injury, axons try to cross the injury site and reconnect with other cells but are stymied by scarring that forms after the injury. Previous studies suggested their movements are blocked when the protein tyrosine phosphatase sigma (PTP sigma), an enzyme found in axons, interacts with chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans, a class of sugary proteins that fill the scars.

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Barrier-breaking drug may lead to spinal cord injury treatments