Word: cords
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...most promising new therapies is a compound called Fampridine-SR (4-AP), now beginning final phases of testing in human patients. If okayed by the Food and Drug Administration, 4-AP will become the first available treatment that can actually restore function in those with spinal-cord injuries; as many as 30% of test subjects who have taken the nerve enhancer have experienced improved movement and feeling in their limbs. Meanwhile, dozens of other compounds, including various nerve-growth factors, have restored muscle activity in paralyzed animals...
Nondrug strategies, especially electrical stimulation of spinal-cord nerves, are also raising hopes. Work in dogs injured in accidents has shown that an alternating electric current applied directly to a damaged spinal cord can restore movement in the legs if administered in the first two weeks after injury. Scientists speculate that the current helps one type of nerve cell line up along the spine, creating a template that can guide other neurons across gaps in the cord...
Lagging behind these efforts are treatments involving stem cells. Some researchers believe these highly versatile cells may eventually provide the cornerstone of all future spinal-cord treatment. Luckily, given the political controversy surrounding embryonic stem cells, it seems that stem cells extracted from adults are just as capable of developing into spinal-cord nerves as those taken from embryos...
Already, scientists in Australia, Portugal and China have removed a group of stem cells involved in the sense of smell from regions deep in the brain and transplanted them into a small number of patients with spinal-cord injuries. These cells are constantly regenerated, making them a potentially rich source of new cells that might be coaxed into becoming spinal-cord neurons. Several teams in the U.S. are investigating another group of stem cells taken from the nasal cavity, where they are much easier to harvest...
...There is a lot more research on spinal-cord injury today than 10 or 15 years ago," says Dr. Fred Roisen of the University of Louisville, one of the researchers involved in the nasal-stem-cell studies. "The future holds a lot of promise." It's worth remembering, however, that progress on any of these fronts will come slowly and, like Reeve's physical therapy, one step at a time. --By Alice Park