Scientists at the University of Michigan have developed an injection, like an epi-pen, designed to be used at the time of trauma to spinal cord. The injection contains nanoparticles that can prevent the body’s immune system from overreacting to the trauma, potentially preventing some spinal cord injuries from resulting in paralysis.
Any kind of trauma causes the body’s immune system to target the damaged area, clear the debris and start the healing process. The brain, spinal and nerves are hyper-sensitive and can be damaged by the inflammation caused by these aggressive immune cells and so normally there is a special barrier that protects them from the inflammation. Unfortunately during spinal cord injuries this barrier is broken and the nervous system is exposed to the effects of the immune system resulting in rapid death of the neurones, damage to myelin and formation of a scar that blocks the regeneration of the spinal cord’s nerve cells.
This results in loss of function below the level of the injury and includes everything from paralysis to a loss of sensation. The researchers have designed nanoparticles that intercept immune cells on their way to the spinal cord, redirecting them away from the injury. Furthermore, those that do reach the spinal cord have been altered to be better at regeneration. The tissue scarring is diminished, there is better myelination and overall the locomation is drastically improved.
What is even better is that no drugs are attached to the nanoparticles which should avoid side effects; the nanoparticles reprogramme the immune cells with their physical characteristics. With fewer immune cells at the trauma location, there is less inflammation and therefore less nerve tissue damage. The reprogrammed immune cells that do make it to the injury site are less inflammatory and help the tissues that are trying to grow back together.
“Hopefully, this technology could lead to new therapeutic strategies not only for patients with spinal cord injury but for those with various inflammatory diseases,” said Jonghyuck Park, a University of Michigan research fellow.
The research in Michigan is supported and sponsored by ‘Wings for Life”, a non-profit spinal cord research foundation who’s mission is to find a cure for spinal cord injury.