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(University of Cambridge) Scientists have revealed a fascinating new design for an incredibly tiny, inflatable spinal cord implant, suited for treating severe chronic back pain that doesn't respond to medication. The inflatable electronic device is part of a spinal cord stimulator (SCS) setup, a type of well-established therapy that delivers mild electric currents to a person's spinal cord via implanted electrodes. That current is sent by a small, implanted pulse generator device, and the whole thing reduces pain because the electrical pulses help to mask pain signals traveling to the brain via the spinal cord. If that all sounds rather...

MRI showing inflammation of the spinal cord. (Roman et al., Frontiers in Immunology, 2021) It feels like it's been a lot longer, but the first case of COVID-19 was officially recorded in December 2019. Researchers are continuing to investigate the full effects of this disease, including unusual ones, and a new analysis has now linked the infection to a rare neurological condition. Acute transverse myelitis (ATM) – an inflammation of the spinal cord which can cause pain, paralysis and sensory problems – was identified in 43 adult COVID-19 cases across 21 countries, with patient ages ranging from 21 to 73,...

Sergio Canavero, of Italy, and Xiaoping Ren, of China, published two studies on Wednesday In the studies, they claim to cure 'irreversible' spinal cord injuries in monkeys and dogs The papers were published in the peer-reviewed US journal Surgical Neurology International Describing their findings as 'unprecedented', Canavero and Ren say this shows they are ready to conduct human trials =========================================================================== The surgeons aspiring to perform the world's first human head transplant claim they have made indisputable progress towards their controversial goal. Sergio Canavero, of Italy, and Xiaoping Ren, of China, published two studies on Wednesday in which they claim to...

When it comes to regeneration, some animals are capable of amazing feats. If you cut off a salamander’s leg, it will grow back. When threatened, some geckos drop their tails to distract their predator, only to regrow them later. Other animals take the process even further. Planarian worms, jellyfish, and sea anemones can actually regenerate their bodies after being cut in half. Led by Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Mansi Srivastava, a team of researchers is shedding new light on how animals pull off the feat, along the way uncovering a number of DNA switches that appear to...

Adult zebrafish are capable of regenerating their spinal cords after a complete severing injury. This close-up of the cells involved reveals supporting glial cells (shown in red) are first to cross the gap between the severed ends. Neuronal cells (green) soon follow. Duke Regeneration Next researchers discovered that a protein in the glia called connective tissue growth factor, or CTGF, is crucial for this process. Credit: Mayssa Mokalled and Kenneth Poss, Duke University ============================================================================================================================ A freshwater zebrafish costs less than two bucks at the pet store, but it can do something priceless: Its spinal cord can heal completely after being...

Even expensive MRIs, designed to detect even minute spinal cord changes, are at times unable to diagnose the cause of pain 58 years ago I made an unfortunate decision. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong Japanese girl. But the problem was not what you’re thinking! Rather, I was in Tokyo, travelling with my wife and her parents. My father-in-law and I decided to experience a Japanese massage at the Imperial Hotel. During the event a petite masseuse suddenly struck the side of my head with a hard blow. I swear to High Heaven...

ur men paralyzed after bad spinal cord injuries can all move their legs again, thanks to an electrical stimulator. Astonished researchers say they’d hoped for some result, but nothing like what they got. They think the stimulator is retraining the mens’ nerves to work with the brain again, despite the terrible damage. “This is wonderful news. Spinal cord injury need no longer be a lifelong sentence of paralysis,” said Dr. Roderic Pettigrew, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, one of the National Institutes of Health. “It is just downright marvelous.” Rob Summers, now 28, was the...

Pfizer Inc.'s drug Lyrica has gotten FDA approval for use in treating nerve pain due to spinal injuries. Lyrica, a pain drug, is Pfizer's second-biggest selling drug. It is expected that this new approval will help Lyrica pass Lipitor, the company's largest-selling drug for reducing cholesterol.

For the first time ever, stem cells from umbilical cords have been converted into other types of cells, which may eventually lead to new treatment options for spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, among other nervous system diseases.  “This is the first time this has been done with non-embryonic stem cells,” says James Hickman, a University of Central Florida bioengineer and leader of the research group, whose accomplishment is described in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.“We’re very excited about where this could lead because it overcomes many of the obstacles present with embryonic stem cells.” ...

SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire - December 10, 2010) - Medistem Inc. (PINKSHEETS: MEDS) announced today peer-reviewed publication of its data on what is believed to be the first "combination therapy" adult stem cell protocol for spinal cord injury. The patient treated, who was 29 years old at the time, suffered a spinal cord injury resulting from an airplane crash on May 13th of 2008. He had no walking ability, intermittent pain and loss of sexual function. The patient was injected with a combination universal donor stem cell therapy in November of 2008, and January and July of 2009. A gradual improvement was observed subsequent to each...

Researchers from UCI, UCSD and Harvard deleted a cell growth inhibitor called PTENIrvine, Calif. — Researchers for the first time have induced robust regeneration of nerve connections that control voluntary movement after spinal cord injury, showing the potential for new therapeutic approaches to paralysis and other motor function impairments. In a study on rodents, the UC Irvine, UC San Diego and Harvard University team achieved this breakthrough by turning back the developmental clock in a molecular pathway critical for the growth of corticospinal tract nerve connections. They did this by deleting an enzyme called PTEN (a phosphatase and tensin homolog),...

The Laura Dominguez StoryIf there was ever a woman on a mission, it’s Laura Dominguez.  Doctors once told her she’d never walk again.  And while she’s not ready to run a marathon, she’s already proving them wrong, with the best yet to come.   An oil spill on a San Antonio freeway is blamed for the car crash that sent Laura and her brother directly into a retaining wall one summer afternoon in 2001.  Laura was just 16 years old at the time and the crash left her completely paralyzed from the neck down.  Surgeons say she suffered what’s known as...

Researchers have developed an improved version of an enzyme that degrades the dense scar tissue that forms when the central nervous system is damaged. By digesting the tissue that blocks re-growth of damaged nerves, the improved enzyme -- and new system for delivering it -- could facilitate recovery from serious central nervous system injuries...

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that regeneration of central nervous system axons can be achieved in rats even when treatment delayed is more than a year after the original spinal cord injury...

A new study has found that transplantation of stem cells from the lining of the spinal cord, called ependymal stem cells, reverses paralysis associated with spinal cord injuries in laboratory tests. The findings show that the population of these cells after spinal cord injury was greater than comparable cells from healthy animal subjects. The results open a new window on spinal cord regenerative strategies. The transplanted cells were found to proliferate after spinal cord injury and were recruited by the specific injured area. When these cells were transplanted into animals with spinal cord injury, they regenerated ten times faster while...

Transplanted adult stem cells have been found to reverse paralysis associated with spinal cord injuries in lab rats, a new study finds. The study, headed up by Miodrag Stojkovic, deputy director and head of the Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory at Centro de Investigacion Principe Felipe in Spain, involved transplanting so-called progenitor stem cells from the lining of rats' spinal cords into rodents with serious spinal cord injuries. The rats recovered significant motor activity one week after injury, Stojkovic and his co-authors wrote in the Jan. 27 early online edition of the journal Stem Cells. Spinal cord injury, for which no therapy...

A study published in the current issue of CELL TRANSPLANTATION (Vol.17, No. 8) suggests that mature adipocytes - fat cells - could become a source for cell replacement therapy to treat central nervous system disorders. According to the study's lead researcher, Dr. Yuki Ohta of the Institute of Medical Science, St. Mariana University School of Medicine, Kawasaki, Japan, adipose-derived stem/stromal cells have in the past been shown to differentiate into neuronal cells in an in vitro setting. In their study, for the first time fat cells have been shown to successfully differentiate into neuronal cells in in vivo tests. The...

Every three months, David Martin, a quadriplegic, returns to a small clinic here in the Russian capital for therapy he cannot legally get back home in Kalamazoo, Mich.: injections of stem cells taken from his own body, at a cost of $12,000 per visit. Martin's American doctors have tried to dissuade him from believing that any improvement in his condition could be the byproduct of stem cell treatments, a therapy not yet approved in the U.S. No scientific evidence has ever shown that such treatments can repair human spinal cord injuries, experts say. Yet Martin notices glints of progress—a twinge...

A spinal surgeon in Aurora, Colo., recently performed what's being called the first disc surgery in the United States using adult stem cells to help repair a man's injured lower back. "Stem cells have shown great promise over the past three years for treating back pain," Dr. Jeffrey Kleiner said. "In combination with the diskectomy, we hope to offer patients long-term relief from their back pain and to decrease their risk of needing additional surgeries." Adult stem cells have been injected into patients' backs and joints to promote tissue growth, but this is the first time stem cells have been...

Spine surgeons at Pine Creek Medical Center in Dallas have established themselves as the leaders of a cutting-edge surgical procedure that utilizes a patient's own adult stem cells to regenerate tissue.   Doctors Douglas Won, Michael Rimlawi, and Francisco J. Battle, all spine surgeons, have extensive experience in harvesting adult stem cells during routine spinal procedures and delivering those cells back to their patients to aid in the treatment of severe back pain.  According to the World Research Group, disorders of the spine are one of the largest public health problems in the U.S. and as the population ages, incidents of...