(Reuters) – German researchers have allowed paralyzed mice to walk again after spinal cord injuries, restoring a neural link hitherto considered irreparable in mammals by using a design protein injected into the brain.
Spinal cord injuries in humans, often caused by sports or traffic accidents, leave them paralyzed because not all nerve fibers that carry information between muscles and the brain are able to grow back.
But researchers at Ruhr Bochum University managed to stimulate the nerve cells of paralyzed mice to regenerate using a design protein.
“The special thing about our study is that the protein is not only used to stimulate the nerve cells that produce it themselves, but it is also transported further (through the brain),” the head told Reuters. of the team, Dietmar Fischer.
“That way, with relatively little intervention, we stimulate a very large number of nerves to regenerate and that’s why mice can walk again.”
The paralyzed rodents who received treatment began walking two or three weeks later, he said.
Treatment involves injecting carriers of genetic information into the brain to produce the protein, called hyper-interleukin-6, according to the university’s website.
The team is investigating whether treatment can be improved.
“We also need to see if our method works in larger mammals. We would think of pigs, dogs or primates, for example, ”said Fischer.
“Then, if it works there, we should make sure that the therapy is also safe for humans. But it will surely take many, many years.”
Report by Stephane Nitschke and Zuzanna Szymanska; edited by John Stonestreet