Paralyzed and Quadriplegics Will Soon Be Able to Walk Again! Brain Damage Might Be Reversible!

About 253,000 Americans live with a form of spinal cord injury. In fact, each year approximately 11,000 Americans suffer more or less severe spinal cord injuries through accidents or as a result of a disease. The survival rate of such injuries has greatly increased thanks to the great medical advances made in the last few decades. However, many are left paralyzed. Similarly, accidents can lead to brain damage as can neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, ALS (Lou Gehrig's), Huntington's, Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis, and even stroke. Just decades ago doctors thought there was no way to cure such injuries. Today we know nerve cells and even brain cells have re-generative capabilities. And we are very close to have the ability to reverse brain damage and to have the paralyzed walk again. Scientists around the globe have been making great progress in these areas throughout the last couple of months. Just last month scientists at the Institute for Cell and Neurobiology at the Charite in Berlin, Germany, announced their findings as to why nerve cells are not being regenerated in the brain of patients suffering from a neurodegenerative condition. Now they are working on finding a way to stimulate and restore the body's own nerve cell regeneration process (AC reported.) In January UCLA scientists published their study findings that there is a way for neural pathways to be re-organized and re-grown, which would provide a new way for brain signals to arrive at their intended destinations (AC reported.) Now scientists at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have added another piece to the solution of the puzzle of nerve re-growth. Their study has been published in this weeks edition of the journal Nature. With research progressing so quickly, the paralyzed could soon be able to walk again, and brain damage might be reversible.

Paralysis, the inability to walk and control major bodily functions, can be the devastating outcome of a tragic accident. But after Christopher Reeve, known for his starring role in Superman, suffered a severe spinal cord injury after a horse riding accident in May of 1995, he put his fame and fund-raising capability to work to finance research into the cure for paralysis. Thanks to this great advances have been made in this area. The UCLA study is one of the research projects funded by Christopher Reeve's foundation. In this study scientists observed the capability of mice to slowly regain their ability to move their legs again after half of their long nerve fibers running along their spinal cords had artificially been blocked off. But after the center of the spinal cord was blocked as well, the mice were paralyzed again. The study proved a long-standing assumption that brain and spinal cord functions as well as neural pathways are hardwired at birth and unable to adapt to changes, is wrong. Patients could indeed recover from paralysis, if the system learns to adapt. Paralysis does not have to be permanent. All the neural system might need is some coaxing to find the right way. Something the UCLA scientists are now working on.

The key to coaxing the nerve cells to rewire themselves to bridge the injury site in the spinal cord might come from the findings of the Charite scientists as well as the findings of the John Hopkins scientists.

The Charite scientists' study was aimed at finding a way to reverse brain damage stemming from brain trauma or a neurodegenerative disease. Until 1999 it was commonly believed such brain damage would be irreversible. Now we know that the brain does regularly form new nerve cells from stem cells, which have the capability to repair brain damage. But this process is interrupted in patients suffering from some sort of brain injury. The German scientist found oxidative stress, a result for the experience of the brain injury, causes an enzyme named SIRT1 to give the wrong signals. Instead of producing nerve cells, the stem cells produce glial cells (cells that give structure to nerve cells but not function). Now the Charite scientists are working on finding a way to coax the SIRT1 cells into giving the proper signals again. Such a kick-start to nerve re-growth might also be useful for spinal injuries.

Similarly, the scientists at John Hopkins University School of Medicine looked for a way to re-grow nerve cells. They investigated facial nerve cells and found that through blood pressure controlling proteins (endothelins) blood vessels in the head are capable of guiding the growth of facial nerve cells. The assumption is that blood vessels throughout the entire body are capable of doing the same. Without endothelins nerve growth does not occur. The scientists also were able to determine the gene responsible for activating these endothelins. The study so far has been limited to mice and mice embryos. The scientists plan to further study how the nerve cells exactly know where to innervate, where to build new nerves. This might provide further insight into how to stimulate nerve re-growth in the human body and to limit it to one particular area, the injured area of the body.

With all this progress made in recent years, scientists seem to be very close to the solution of the nerve re-growth problem throughout the body. Maybe soon, very soon, neurodegenerative diseases can be a thing of the past, brain injuries can be reversed, and the diagnosis of paralysis doesn't mean life in a wheelchair anymore.