WASHINGTON (AP)-Destiny to damage three people suffering from a disease-destroying disease has become slightly stronger-being able to be tired and run easily-when an implant device zipped their spinal cord zip What
On Wednesday, researchers reported the first evidence that the implant that triggered the spinal cord Are already being tested for paralysis At least temporarily, by restoring some muscle function – can also help in neurodegenerative diseases such as spinal muscle atrophy.
“These people were definitely not expecting improvement,” said Marco Capgiroso, Assistant Professor of the University of Pittsburg, who led the research. Yet during the month’s pilot’s study, “they were getting better and better.”
Spinal cord muscle atrophy or SMA is a genetic disease that gradually eliminates nerve cells in the motor neuron, spinal cord that control the muscles. This causes muscle waste, especially in the legs, hips and shoulders, and sometimes those involved in breathing and swallowing. There is no cure. A gene therapy can save the lives of very young children in a severe form of the disease, and old patients have some medicines to deteriorate.
Spinal cord stimulation with low levels has long been used to treat chronic pain, but the Capgiroso team has also experienced it to help people become paralyzed by stroke or Spinal cord injury provides their organs without any help. When turned on, it zipped the nerve circuits in the flow of injury to activate the muscle.
Then Capegreoso wondered if the same technology could help SMA like this – by alive the relevant sensory nerves so that they could awaken the bad muscle cells, to move them to confront the disposal. Will help.
Pitt researchers put electrodes on the lower spine of three adults with SMA and tested their muscle strength, fatigue, movement range and trick and walking and walking distance when the device was firing when It was turned off.
Researchers reported in the Nature Medicine Journal, not restoring normal movements, but with just a few hours of spinal cord stimulation in a week, all saw improvement of muscle strength and functions.
“You never get better with a progressive illness,” said Doug McCwalk, a 57 -year -old study of New Jersey’s Franklin Park. “Either you are stable or deteriorated. So having any improvement is just a realistic and very interesting benefit.
Capegroeso said the three participants added significantly to the extent to which they could run in six minutes, and which could not initially be standing with a knee -leaving position, it could be by the end of the study. And the Mac kilo changed so that every step was about three times tallest.
“They suffer from low fatigue so they can last longer,” said Capegroeso. “Even a person can get better for many years in this disease.”
Surprisingly, researchers found that the improvement did not end with the stimulation, though the study ended after the participants were detected.
McCwalk said even when the stimulus was closed, his legs in a few nights “just feel supercharge.”
When he understood that the device had to be removed at the end of the study, he was disappointed. He said he had some time -consuming benefits in six weeks of checkups, but no one after six months.
Neuro scientist Susan Harikima, who led the stimulation of stimulation for spinal cord injuries at Louis Will University, warned that the new study was small and small, but it was considered an important evidence of the concept. It is logical to test the technique against the list of diseases that are deprived of muscle, he said.
“Human spinal cord circuitry is very sophisticated – this is not a group of brain -controlled anxiety,” said Harkima, now with a rehabilitation research non -profit casserler Foundation. “This is a very solid study, an important contribution to moving forward.”
In the pit, Capgiroso said that some small but long education continues.
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