Category Archives: Spinal Cord Injury Treatment

Auto accident victims are encouraged to seek immediate medical attention to treat resulting injuries. Spinal cord injuries are not always obvious and can result in more serious injury if not recognized and treated right away. Signs of spinal cord injury may include: The time between injury and treatment can be critical in determining the extent of the damage and the length of recovery, according to the Mayo Clinic. Accident victims who suspect they have a spinal cord injury should seek medical advice immediately. Common causes of spinal cord injuries often occur as a result of anothers negligence, such as slip and fall accidents or car crashes. Victims and their families who suspect a spinal cord injury was caused by someone elses carelessnessare urged to speak with a spinal cord injury lawyer to discuss filing a lawsuit. They may be able to seek compensation for medical bills and other expenses that can last a lifetime. Read the original: Spinal Cord Injury Warning Signs … Continue reading →

December 6, 2014 Brett Smith for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online A spinal cord injury can be devastating and life-changing currently with little hope for full recovery. However, new research from a large team of North American scientists has shown promise for a compound known as intracellular sigma peptide (ISP), according to a report in the journal Nature. Study researchers found that ISP helped lab rats with spinal cord injuries regain the ability to control urination, move or both. They added that the results could be a sign the compound could be used in the future for treating humans with similar injuries. This recovery is unprecedented, study author Jerry Silver, a professor of neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said in a recent statement. Each of the 21 animals got something back in terms of function. For any spinal cord-injured patient today, it would be considered extraordinary to regain even one of these functions, especially bladder function, Silver added. ISP additionally has treatment potential for diseases where the body produces destructive scarring such as heart attack, peripheral nerve injury and multiple sclerosis (MS). When an animal suffers an injury to the central nervous system (CNS), molecules called proteoglycans collect … Continue reading →

Published December 03, 2014 Scientists have developed a new chemical compound that they say shows extraordinary promise in restoring muscle function in spinal cord injury patients. The study, partly funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in the journal Nature, used the compound intracellular sigma peptide (ISP), which was developed by Case Western Reserve scientists. It was used in 26 rats with severe spinal cord injury, and researchers recorded that the compound allowed paralyzed muscles to activate in more than 80 percent of subjects tested. The team found that after seven weeks of daily injections, 21 of the rats regained the ability to urinate, move or both. Researchers noted the peptide allowed for nerve fibers to overcome scarring that normally blocked their regrowth, according to a news release. This recovery is unprecedented, Jerry Silver, senior study author and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine professor of neurosciences said in the news release. Each of the 21 animals got something back in terms of function. For any spinal cord-injured patient today, it would be considered extraordinary to regain even one of these functions, especially bladder function, he said. When a spinal cord injury occurs, proteoglycans -- key … Continue reading →

By increasing the amount of serotonin in the spinal cord, an experimental drug helps nerve connections work better. Bee Smith/Ocean/Corbis hide caption By increasing the amount of serotonin in the spinal cord, an experimental drug helps nerve connections work better. A scientist who chose to ignore the mainstream nearly 30 years ago has found a new way to regenerate nerves in the spinal cord, at least in animals. A drug that Jerry Silver, a professor of neuroscience at Case Western Reserve University, helped design a drug that has allowed paralyzed rats to regain bladder function and even walk. The drug works by releasing nerve fibers that have become trapped in scar tissue after a spinal cord injury, Silver says. "Now we've got something that might work in people," though it hasn't been tested in humans yet, he says. The study was published Wednesday in Nature. Everybody else in the world was asking why nerves grow where they do. And I thought I'd do something different and ask why they don't grow where they don't. - Jerry Silver The research that led to this drug began in the 1980s. At the time, Silver and many other scientists were studying nerves. "Everybody … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 3-Dec-2014 Contact: Jeannette Spalding jeannette.spalding@case.edu 216-368-3004 Case Western Reserve University @casenews Case Western Reserve scientists have developed a new chemical compound that shows extraordinary promise in restoring function lost to spinal cord injury. The compound, which the researchers dubbed intracellular sigma peptide (ISP), allowed paralyzed muscles to activate in more than 80 percent of the animals tested. The remarkable study, partly funded by the National Institutes of Health, appears in the December 3 edition of the journal Nature. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Professor of Neurosciences Jerry Silver, PhD, the senior author, led an international team of scientists in the research in which 21 of 26 animals with spinal cord injury regained the ability to urinate, move or both. In the experiments, the peptide appears to allow nerve fibers to overcome scarring that normally blocks their regrowth. "This recovery is unprecedented," Silver said. "Each of the 21 animals got something back in terms of function. For any spinal cord-injured patient today, it would be considered extraordinary to regain even one of these functions, especially bladder function. ISP additionally has treatment potential for diseases where the body produces destructive scarring such as heart attack, peripheral nerve … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

INQUIRER.net PHOTO PARIS, France A new compound, tested so far on rats, shows promise in restoring functions lost by paralyzing injury to the spinal cord, a study said on Wednesday. Called intracellular sigma peptide (ISP), the drug helped lab animals with severe spinal injury recover the ability to urinate or move, or both, it said. More work is needed, but the scientists behind ISP said the results boosted hopes for a future therapy for humans. Were very excited at the possibility that millions of people could, one day, regain movements lost during spinal cord injuries, said Jerry Silver, a professor of neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Published in the journal Nature, the research looked at ways of overcoming scarring when nerve fibers in the spinal cord are damaged and signals from the brain no longer reach muscles below the injury site. Nerve fibers try to cross the injury site and reconnect with other fibers, but become trapped at the scar site by sticky proteins called proteoglycans. ISP is designed to act on the receptor on the surface of the nerve cells. Like a switch, it turns off a response to the proteoglycans that causes the blockage. … Continue reading →

Researchers say they've developed a drug that may help heal a damaged spine the first time anything like a drug has been shown to help. The drug works on nerve cells that are cut, sending connections across the break, and it helped injured rats move their back legs again and also gave them back control of their bladders. "This recovery is unprecedented," said Jerry Silver, a neuroscience professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio who led the study. Right now, there's no good way to heal a broken spine. Sometimes people grow nerve cells back, but usually not. All the cures that are in the works require invasive surgery, whether it's injections of stem cells, nerve tissue transplants or implants of neurostimulators. But Silver's team came up with a compound that is injected. It doesn't require surgery. "We're very excited at the possibility that millions of people could, one day, regain movements lost during spinal cord injuries." "There are currently no drug therapies available that improve the very limited natural recovery from spinal cord injuries that patients experience," said Lyn Jakeman, a program director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of … Continue reading →

UC Riverside-led mouse study shows the ligand indazole chloride improves motor function, imparting therapeutic benefits even when treatment is initiated at the peak of disease By Iqbal Pittalwala on December 1, 2014 Seema Tiwari-Woodruff is an associate professor of biomedical sciences at the UC Riverside School of Medicine. Photo credit: I. Pittalwala, UC Riverside. RIVERSIDE, Calif. Multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease of the brain and spinal cord, affects about 2.3 million people worldwide (400,000 in the United States). Affecting more women than men, it can be seen at any age, although it is most commonly diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 40. An unpredictable disease that disrupts the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and the body, MS is triggered when the immune system attacks the myelin sheath, the protective covering around the axons of nerve fibers. The demyelination that follows causes a disruption of nerve impulses. As the protective sheath best imagined as the insulating material around an electrical wire wears off, the nerve signals slow down or stop, and the patients vision, sensation and use of limbs get impaired. Permanent paralysis can result when the nerve fibers are completely damaged by the … Continue reading →

Nanoparticles made from the fatty biomolecule squalene and the nucleoside adenosine could help protect neurons following a stroke or spinal-cord injury at least in mice according to new experiments by researchers in France and Turkey. The finding proves that such simple treatments might be better than conventional pharmaceutical therapies for treating severe neurological trauma. It is difficult to treat brain diseases using drugs that act on the central nervous system. This is because most drugs rapidly break down (or metabolize) in the bloodstream and diffuse rather poorly through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and blood-spinal-cord barrier (BSCB). These drugs can often be toxic too, with a number of unpleasant side effects. Brain and cerebral diseases are also highly complex often involving multiple interactions between the blood vessels of the brain and its neurons and glial cells. Nanotechnology could come into its own here because it could help improve drug delivery to the brain. New experiments by Patrick Couvreur of the University Paris-Sud and colleagues have shown that nanoparticles made of adenosine combined with squalene appear to protect neurons following a stroke (cerebral ischemia) or spinal-cord injury. Adenosine is a good vasodilator but it cannot be used on its own for such … Continue reading →