The search for a cure
The search for a cure
Unlike the peripheral nerves the tissues of the spinal cord have little or capacity to heal . Spinal cord neurons do not repair themselves; however, there has been significant progress towards finding a cure for SCI in five main areas of research around axon/neuron regeneration:
- Use/stimulation of growth promoters
- Blocking of the inhibition process
- Removal of barriers
- Implantation of helper cells
- Axon guidance
- Cell therapies, transplantation.
The Spinal Cord Society believes that there will be no “magic bullet” from any single approach and therefore our scientific plan is based on a combination approach.
Where can I find more information – useful websites
The following articles provide excellent coverage of progress in the area of SCI Cure research:
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NEW !
An excellent review article from one of our scientific advisory panel - Dr Jesse Owens
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A comprehensive article by Sandrine Thuret|, Lawrence D. F. Moon and Fred H. Gage who review potential therapies which are approaching clinical trial. They emphasise the need for reproducible evidence of safety and efficacy. The article confirms that individual therapies are unlikely to provide a panacea cure and predicts and that combinations of strategies will lead to improvements in outcome after SCI and basic research should provide a rational basis for tailoring specific combinations of clinical therapies.
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A 2006 article by Noam Y. Harel and Stephen M. Strittmatter entitled, “Can regenerating axons recapitulate developmental guidance during recovery from spinal cord injury?” They discuss the difficulties faced by growing adult CNS fibres and methods to stimulate growth in the adult.
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This is quite an old article (2002) by UAB Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Secondary Conditions of Spinal Cord Injury (Spain) but it provides a good overview of the history of SCI research as well as outlining the various areas of research.
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Other related links
A big thank you to Lions club of Australia who have generously supported spinal cord injury research.
