Serious accidents that damage the spinal cord and impair a patient's ability to feel and move often lead to a lifetime of disability. Until recently it was thought that damaged nerves would never regenerate.
But in a study published in the journal Neuron, Samuel David, a neuroscientist, Peter Braun, a biochemist, Da Wei Huang, a post doctoral fellow of McGill University, and Lisa McKerracher, a neuroscientist from the University of Montreal, report that a new vaccine can stimulate nerve growth after a spinal cord injury. The researchers focused on the myelin sheath, which insulates and wraps around the nerve fibres in the spinal cord.
This myelin sheath contains molecules that inhibit nerve regeneration. Made of purified myelin, the vaccine initiated a response in the immune systems of disabled mice, which began producing antibodies to the inhibitors in the myelin. The result was regeneration of motor neurons and the recovery of some limb function.
David cautions that much work remains before a vaccine is tested on humans.
But in a study published in the journal Neuron, Samuel David, a neuroscientist, Peter Braun, a biochemist, Da Wei Huang, a post doctoral fellow of McGill University, and Lisa McKerracher, a neuroscientist from the University of Montreal, report that a new vaccine can stimulate nerve growth after a spinal cord injury. The researchers focused on the myelin sheath, which insulates and wraps around the nerve fibres in the spinal cord.
This myelin sheath contains molecules that inhibit nerve regeneration. Made of purified myelin, the vaccine initiated a response in the immune systems of disabled mice, which began producing antibodies to the inhibitors in the myelin. The result was regeneration of motor neurons and the recovery of some limb function.
David cautions that much work remains before a vaccine is tested on humans.
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