Spinal cord treatment breakthrough

[Christopher]

Good article on one of the top researchers in the field of Neuro-regeneration (BPI and Spinal Cord Injury cure).


http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/se ... akthrough/
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Spinal Cord Treatment Breakthrough

Researcher in Denver discovers the importance of modifying astrocytes

By Caitlin Coleman, For the Camera
Friday, September 19, 2008

Researchers from the University of Colorado Denver have published breakthrough findings in the Journal of Biology that could help heal spinal cord injuries without pain or brain degeneration.

Using stem cell-like Glial Restricted Precursor cells, or GRPs, a research team headed by Dr. Stephen Davies at CU-Denver has been able to use molecules to direct those cells to produce two drastically different types of spinal cord support cells called astrocytes; astrocytes account for about 70 percent of the cells in the human nervous system.

Scientists have long believed that astrocytes are responsible for the generation of the embryonic spinal cord. Researchers have hoped to harness this ability of generation for use in repairing injured adult spinal cords, which scar and don't grow back. However, there has been a long-standing idea that any kind of therapy that would promote the sprouting of nerve fibers in the spinal cord would also make pain circuits sprout, which can cause excruciating pain, Davies said.

"What our study shows is that, OK, what you have to do is you have to control what astrocytes are made from the stem cell-like cells," said Davies.

Davies' team has done this by creating two different astrocytes from the same GRP. One type of astrocyte they created caused nerves to regenerate without causing pain. Rats with injured spinal cords treated with these astrocytes regenerated 40 percent of their spinal cords within eight days and regained full locomotion within four weeks.

Whereas the other form of astrocyte, which Davies refered to as the "bad astrocytes," caused severe pain without any recovery.

"Now there's this concept that you can't just transplant naive stem cells into injured tissues and hope that the injured tissue will direct these cells to turn into desirable cell types," Davies said. Doctors need to be careful using untreated stem cells because they could induce severe side effects such as neuropathic pain, he said.

This technology isn't yet available to humans; so far, these "good astrocytes" have only been tested on rats.

Davies said he hopes to develop a pharmaceutical-grade product and move the technology to clinical trial within the next few years.

The research wouldn't only impact recent spinal cord injuries. Davies said the good astrocytes could help repair the spinal cord, the brain, chronic injuries and neurological disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

"The research is going far better than I would have hoped for," Davies said. "What we've found of rat cells seems to be true of human cells which is great news."
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Anyone interested in further discussion and commentary by Dr. Davies or reading about his work can find it on the CareCure Community Spinal Cord Injury forum
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?t=87284

he is also available at times for questions there

[EllenB]

Thank you so much for sharing this - it's very encouraging!

Hope you're doing well. Let John know if you have any winter sport plans in Steamboat Springs this year!

Ellen