A cure for spinal injuries that leave people paralyzed, currently incurable, is being developed by Researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago. They are looking into using new nanotechnology that could enable them to completely heal cut and severed spinal cords allowing the previously paralyzed to walk again.

 

Spinal cord injury often leads to permanent paralysis and loss of sensation below the site of the injury due to damaged nerve fibers which can’t regenerate. These nerve fibers (axons) have the capacity to grow but don’t because they are blocked by scar tissue that have developed around the injury. Northwestern University researchers have shown that a new nano-engineered gel inhibits the formation of scar tissue at the injury site and enables the severed spinal cord fibers to regenerate and grow.

 

The gel is injected as a liquid into the spinal cord and self -assembles into a scaffold that supports the new nerve fibers as they grow up and down the spinal cord, penetrating the site of the injury. When the gel was injected into mice with a spinal cord injury, after six weeks the animals had a greatly enhanced ability to use their hind legs and walk.

 

However it was stressed that the results were preliminary and there is no magic bullet and it may not necessarily work on humans, but it helps a new technology to develop treatments for spinal injuries.