Miracles and molecules--progress in spinal cord repair.
Severe spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to devastating loss of neurological function below the level of injury and adversely affects multiple body systems. Most basic research on SCI is designed to find ways to improve the unsatisfactory cellular and molecular responses of spinal cord to injury, which include an array of early processes of autodestruction and a subsequent lack of functional tissue repair. This research has brought us to the threshold of practical application along three lines of approach, derived from animal model studies: acute neuroprotection, enhanced axonal regeneration or plasticity, and treatment of demyelination. There is a growing commercial interest in this previously neglected therapeutic area.
Blight
Andrew R
AR
Acorda Therapeutics, 15 Skyline Drive, Hawthorne, New York 10532, USA. ablight@acorda.com
D000818:Animals; D016380:Brain Tissue Transplantation / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000639:trends*; D003711:Demyelinating Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D015195:Drug Design; D004341:Drug Evaluation / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009488:Neurosciences / Q000639:trends*; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*