A drug has been developed by the scientists that they claim may help in healing a damaged spine. This is for the first time when such a drug has been developed to treat the spine problems.
Study leader Jerry Silver, a neuroscience professor at Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University, said, “This recovery is unprecedented.”
Scientists said the drug works on the damaged nerve cells by sending connections across the broken region. The study was conducted on the injured rats, which were able to move their back legs again after getting administered by the drugs, which gave them back control of their bladders.
The newly developed drug compound doesn’t require surgery and can be simply injected inside the body.
Till now, there was no better treatment for healing a broken spine. All the cures in operation required invasive surgery. Some of the common treatment processes used includes stem cell injections, nerve tissue transplants and neurostimulators implants.
Lyn Jakeman, study co-author and program director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, said, “This is a great step toward identifying a novel agent for helping people recover from spine troubles. The development has opened possibility that millions of people could, one day, regain movements lost during spinal cord injuries.”
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke is a part of the National Institutes of Health.
No drugs therapies are currently available in the market that help in improving the spine condition, while the natural recovery from spinal cord injuries are found very limited in the patients.