Fw: [michellewhite302000] New paralysis treatment 'astonishing'; Gel-like drug repairs neurons, Toronto study finds

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[michellewhite302000] New paralysis treatment 'astonishing'; Gel-like

drug repairs neurons, Toronto study finds

New paralysis treatment 'astonishing'; Gel-like drug repairs neurons,

Toronto study finds

ph Hall

The Toronto Star , May 23, 2011

Just before they closed the incision after a six-hour operation to

repair

his shattered spine, surgeons at Toronto Western Hospital asked

Picco's

parents if they could try something new.

The 17-year-old roofer had tumbled two days earlier through an opening

on

top of an Oshawa supermarket after removing his safety line to free

himself

from a snag.

The fall crushed the L1 vertebra in his lower back, leaving him

completely

paralyzed from the waist down.

But in the new treatment along his spine, the gel-like drug Cethrin was

used

to coat his injured nerves in a protective layer that was actually

reversing

the neurological damage.

" Oh, geez, yes, I'm glad I got it, " says Picco, now 23, who has defied

early

predictions that he would never move his legs again.

Picco can now shuffle almost 20 metres with the aid of braces and can

leg-press 45 kilograms in the gym.

In a new study released this month, researchers at Toronto Western's

Krembil

Neuroscience Centre show the drug has likely produced significant

movement

regeneration in several of its 48 patients.

Most recent spine injury research has concentrated on drugs that

attempt to

block the inflammatory response caused by the original trauma, which

continues to destroy nerve cells in the hours after an accident.

But Cethrin is the first drug tested on humans that actually appears to

heal

the damaged neurons, which carry electrical movement impulses from the

brain

to the rest of the body.

" There have been very few clinical trials done with reparative or

regenerative therapies in humans, " says Dr. Fehlings, the

Krembil

Centre's director and the study's lead author.

" And this is also one of the few that has really shown promise. "

It did so, he says, despite the total paralysis suffered by all of the

study's subjects below their injury sites.

" There is no movement or feeling below the level of the injury, so

someone

is literally completely paralyzed, " Fehlings explains.

" The prognosis for such patients is generally quite sobering in terms

of

neurological recovery. "

In the small, early-phase trial, the researcher's key goals were to

establish the drug's safety and to determine the doses that might

produce

optimal results.

But it appeared to show the results produced by those optimal doses

were

profound, Fehlings says.

" In that group of patients, we observed a rate of recovery which was

astonishing. "

Fehlings says 31 per cent of the optimally dosed patient group improved

two

to three grades on a standard paralysis scale, moving from complete

paralysis to the point that they could both feel and move below the

injury.

He says the mobility improvement rates in those who responded best to

the

drug were more than three times greater than could be expected to occur

normally.

Fehlings says the drug, which is slathered along the spinal cord at the

end

of surgery, likely blocks the actions of a protein known as Rho, which

limits the ability of nerve cells, or axons, in the cord to regenerate

and

reconnect.

Fehlings cautions that the drug must be tested in much larger, more

rigorous

trials before it can be put into general clinical use. But he says it

has

excited the neurological community enough that those new studies should

come

soon.

The research, published this month in the Journal of Neurotrauma, comes

hard

on the heels of a study released last week that detailed the recovery

of a

paralyzed college baseball player through the use of electrical

stimulation

of the spine.

Fehlings says the Cethrin treatments would almost certainly work in

conjunction with such electrical therapy, making patients' spinal cords

more

receptive to the stimulation.

Picco himself credits a combination of Cethrin and relentless

rehabilitation

work for his continuing recovery.

" I'd like to believe it's both hard work and the drug, " he says.

" But it's slowly still coming back, and it's not stopping. "

[Guest guest]

This trial, like the current stem cell trials, have one problem in common -

they have to be done at the time of the injury. It might be good for those

that have quick surgery to reverse neurological loss/decline, but, like the

stem cell trials, the material must be put in at the time of the corrective

surgery. They haven't been successfully used on people who have been

paralyzed for a period of time. There was a trail just published; however,

about a man that had a spinal cord stimulator placed much lower than they

are normally placed for pain management, and he is now able to walk a few

steps and voluntarily move his lower extremities. And he was paralyzed for

3-4 years. The other issue I find suspect about this study is that they

didn't know what his neuro outcome was for sure. When the intervention is

done at the time of the inital surgery, you never know what the patient's

neuro outcome would be. I have a friend paralyzed 10+ years ago that was Dx

as a complete SCI at T12 (it is the complete SCI/Ds that cannot recover) and

she can move her lower extremities and stand and even take a few steps.

The more research, the better, though.

Jenn

>

>

>

> [michellewhite302000] New paralysis treatment 'astonishing';

> Gel-like drug repairs neurons, Toronto study finds

>

> New paralysis treatment 'astonishing'; Gel-like drug repairs neurons,

> Toronto study finds

>

> ph Hall

> The Toronto Star , May 23, 2011

>

> Just before they closed the incision after a six-hour operation to

> repair

> his shattered spine, surgeons at Toronto Western Hospital asked

> Picco's

> parents if they could try something new.

>

> The 17-year-old roofer had tumbled two days earlier through an opening

> on

> top of an Oshawa supermarket after removing his safety line to free

> himself

> from a snag.

>

> The fall crushed the L1 vertebra in his lower back, leaving him

> completely

> paralyzed from the waist down.

>

> But in the new treatment along his spine, the gel-like drug Cethrin was

> used

> to coat his injured nerves in a protective layer that was actually

> reversing

> the neurological damage.

>

> " Oh, geez, yes, I'm glad I got it, " says Picco, now 23, who has defied

> early

> predictions that he would never move his legs again.

>

> Picco can now shuffle almost 20 metres with the aid of braces and can

> leg-press 45 kilograms in the gym.

>

> In a new study released this month, researchers at Toronto Western's

> Krembil

> Neuroscience Centre show the drug has likely produced significant

> movement

> regeneration in several of its 48 patients.

>

> Most recent spine injury research has concentrated on drugs that

> attempt to

> block the inflammatory response caused by the original trauma, which

> continues to destroy nerve cells in the hours after an accident.

>

> But Cethrin is the first drug tested on humans that actually appears to

> heal

> the damaged neurons, which carry electrical movement impulses from the

> brain

> to the rest of the body.

>

> " There have been very few clinical trials done with reparative or

> regenerative therapies in humans, " says Dr. Fehlings, the

> Krembil

> Centre's director and the study's lead author.

>

> " And this is also one of the few that has really shown promise. "

>

> It did so, he says, despite the total paralysis suffered by all of the

> study's subjects below their injury sites.

>

> " There is no movement or feeling below the level of the injury, so

> someone

> is literally completely paralyzed, " Fehlings explains.

>

> " The prognosis for such patients is generally quite sobering in terms

> of

> neurological recovery. "

>

> In the small, early-phase trial, the researcher's key goals were to

> establish the drug's safety and to determine the doses that might

> produce

> optimal results.

>

> But it appeared to show the results produced by those optimal doses

> were

> profound, Fehlings says.

>

> " In that group of patients, we observed a rate of recovery which was

> astonishing. "

>

> Fehlings says 31 per cent of the optimally dosed patient group improved

> two

> to three grades on a standard paralysis scale, moving from complete

> paralysis to the point that they could both feel and move below the

> injury.

>

> He says the mobility improvement rates in those who responded best to

> the

> drug were more than three times greater than could be expected to occur

> normally.

>

> Fehlings says the drug, which is slathered along the spinal cord at the

> end

> of surgery, likely blocks the actions of a protein known as Rho, which

> limits the ability of nerve cells, or axons, in the cord to regenerate

> and

> reconnect.

>

> Fehlings cautions that the drug must be tested in much larger, more

> rigorous

> trials before it can be put into general clinical use. But he says it

> has

> excited the neurological community enough that those new studies should

> come

> soon.

>

> The research, published this month in the Journal of Neurotrauma, comes

> hard

> on the heels of a study released last week that detailed the recovery

> of a

> paralyzed college baseball player through the use of electrical

> stimulation

> of the spine.

>

> Fehlings says the Cethrin treatments would almost certainly work in

> conjunction with such electrical therapy, making patients' spinal cords

> more

> receptive to the stimulation.

>

> Picco himself credits a combination of Cethrin and relentless

> rehabilitation

> work for his continuing recovery.

>

> " I'd like to believe it's both hard work and the drug, " he says.

>

> " But it's slowly still coming back, and it's not stopping. "

>

>