Gene Therapy Repairs Spinal Cord Injury
Medical Breakthrough - Gene Therapy Repairs Spinal Cord Damage Spinal Cord Neurons Spinal Cord Injuries The numbers are staggering. 270,000 Americans are paralyzed by spinal cord injuries. 80% of them are male and 16 to 30 years old. There has been no regenerative treatment to reverse the spinal cord damage. Now, there's reason for hope. Researchers at Kings College London have demonstrated that rats with spinal cord injury re-learn skilled hand movement after being treated with gene therapy. Strong Human to Animal Correlation These findings are significant because humans and rats use a similar sequence of movements when reaching and grasping objects. The hope and expectation is that it will work on human spinal cord victims too. It's so important because people with spinal cord injury often lose their ability to do everyday functions like writing, holding a fork and brushing their teeth. The very basic things that we ...