A great scientific breakthrough.. one injection cures paralysis

paralysis presents a great challenge to scientists; Because our body’s central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord, has no ability to repair itself after an injury, or after the onset of a degenerative disease.

5 tracks

Samuel Stipe, professor of materials science and engineering, chemistry, medicine, and biomedical engineering at Northwestern UniversityAnd lead the research team, said his team’s research aims to find a treatment that can boost the risk of paralysis after major trauma or illness.

According to the researchers, the treatment works by adjusting the movement of molecules, so that they can find and properly interact with constantly moving cellular receptors; The treatment is injected as a liquid, and is instantly transformed into an intricate network of nanofibers that mimic the extracellular matrix of the spinal cord.

By sending biologically active signals to stimulate cells to repair and regenerate, the treatment significantly improved penetration into the injured spinal cord through five pathways: 1- Regeneration of severed axons, to activate communication between cells, severed by paralysis; 2- Repair of the scar tissue (the area of ​​the injury) in which the action of the dancing molecules is diminished; 3- repair of the myelin that surrounds the axon of neurons; 4- repair of functional blood vessels formed to deliver nutrients to cells at the site of injury; 5- More motor neurons are renewed.

dancing particles

According to the researchers, the receptors in the nervous cells And other cells are constantly moving. The main innovation in the new scientific paper, which has not been achieved before, is the ability to control the mass movement of more than 100,000 molecules within the nanofibers.

By inducing molecules to move, dance or even temporarily jump out of these structures, known as supramolecular polymers, they are able to contact receptors more effectively.

Vacation Stub: "Given that cells themselves and their receptors in constant motion, you can imagine that molecules that move more quickly will encounter these receptors more often.. If the molecules are slow, they may never come into contact with the cells".

Fine-tuning the movement of molecules within the nanofiber network resulted in greater therapeutic efficacy in paralyzed mice, and the researchers confirmed that their treatment formulations with improved molecular motion performed better during laboratory tests with human cells, indicating increased bioactivity and cellular signaling.

Multiple therapeutic goals

Samuel Staub explains that tissues Nervous system The central brain that his team succeeded in regenerating in the affected spinal cord is similar to that in the brain affected by stroke and neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer.

Duration: "Furthermore, our fundamental finding about controlling the movement of molecular assemblies to enhance cell signaling can be universally applied across biomedical targets.".

The researchers say they are going directly to the Food and Drug Administration to begin the process of approving this new treatment for use in patients, who currently have very few treatment options.".

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In the study recently published in the journal “Science”, researchers gave a single injection into the tissue surrounding the spinal cord of paralyzed mice, and after only four weeks, the mice regained the ability to walk.

And for decades it has been paralysis presents a great challenge to scientists; Because our body’s central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord, has no ability to repair itself after an injury, or after the onset of a degenerative disease.

5 tracks

Samuel Stipe, professor of materials science and engineering, chemistry, medicine, and biomedical engineering at Northwestern UniversityAnd lead the research team, said his team’s research aims to find a treatment that can boost the risk of paralysis after major trauma or illness.

According to the researchers, the treatment works by adjusting the movement of molecules, so that they can find and properly interact with constantly moving cellular receptors; The treatment is injected as a liquid, and is instantly transformed into an intricate network of nanofibers that mimic the extracellular matrix of the spinal cord.

By sending biologically active signals to stimulate cells to repair and regenerate, the treatment significantly improved penetration into the injured spinal cord through five pathways: 1- Regeneration of severed axons, to activate communication between cells, severed by paralysis; 2- Repair of the scar tissue (the area of ​​the injury) in which the action of the dancing molecules is diminished; 3- repair of the myelin that surrounds the axon of neurons; 4- repair of functional blood vessels formed to deliver nutrients to cells at the site of injury; 5- More motor neurons are renewed.

dancing particles

According to the researchers, the receptors in the nervous cells And other cells are constantly moving. The main innovation in the new scientific paper, which has not been achieved before, is the ability to control the mass movement of more than 100,000 molecules within the nanofibers.

By inducing molecules to move, dance or even temporarily jump out of these structures, known as supramolecular polymers, they are able to contact receptors more effectively.

Stipe says, “Given that cells themselves and their receptors in constant motion, you can imagine that molecules that move more quickly will encounter these receptors more often… If the molecules are slow, they may never come into contact with the cells.”

Fine-tuning the movement of molecules within the nanofiber network resulted in greater therapeutic efficacy in paralyzed mice, and the researchers confirmed that their treatment formulations with improved molecular motion performed better during laboratory tests with human cells, indicating increased bioactivity and cellular signaling.

Multiple therapeutic goals

Samuel Staub explains that tissues Nervous system The central brain that his team succeeded in regenerating in the affected spinal cord is similar to that in the brain affected by stroke and neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer.

“Moreover, our fundamental finding about controlling the movement of molecular assemblies to enhance cell signaling can be applied universally across biomedical targets.”

The researchers say they are going directly to the Food and Drug Administration to begin the process of approving this new treatment for use in patients, who currently have very few treatment options.