Berlin-SANA
German researchers have helped mice paralyzed by spinal cord injury to walk again by re-establishing a nerve link that had hitherto been deemed irreparable in mammals using a designed protein to be injected into the brain.
The new study, according to the British newspaper, The Sun, opens the door to hope for humans, after experiments succeeded in repairing spinal cord damage to paralyzed mice, as it was seen before the experiment as irreparable in mammals.
Spinal cord injuries often caused by sports or traffic accidents leave their owners in a state of paralysis because not all nerve fibers that carry information between muscles and the brain are able to grow again, but researchers at the Ruhr University in Bochum were able to stimulate the neurons of paralyzed mice to push them to regenerate by using One of the proteins.
"What distinguishes our study is that the protein is not only used to stimulate these neurons to produce them themselves, but it is also transported further through the brain," said Detmar Fischer, head of the research team, adding that "in this way and with a relatively simple intervention we stimulate a large number of nerves to regenerate and this In the end, it is the reason why mice can walk again. ”
Fisher explained that the paralyzed mice that received the treatment began walking after two to three weeks.
The treatment includes injecting material carrying genetic information into the brain to produce a protein called "hyperinterleukin-6".
And team members are looking into whether they can improve this treatment method. "If we succeed in treating larger mammals, we have to make sure that the treatment is safe for humans as well, but that will take years," said Fisher.
