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NEW YORK, Oct 26 (Reuters Health) -- A compound that blocks blood vessel growth helped mice survive and recover walking ability after a spinal cord injury, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
More than 90% of mice injected with the experimental compound, CM101, survived and 24 of 26 mice regained their ability to walk, according to the report. In contrast, just 6 out of 14 mice not given the compound survived and all were paralyzed. The mice were given CM101 an hour after injury and every other day for a total of six infusions of the drug.
``This is a study showing -- in mice -- that it's possible to inhibit the formation of paralysis or reverse paralysis due to crush injury,'' said senior investigator Dr. Carl Hellerqvist, a professor of biochemistry and medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. About 90% of human spinal cord injuries are due to a crushing of the spinal cord, said Hellerqvist, who is the co-founder of CarboMed Inc., a Brentwood, Tennessee company that funded the study.
In the majority of the animals given the drug, ``by 12 days there was no effect of the injury, they were acting absolutely normal,'' he said.
The finding may one day help spinal injury patients treated immediately after injury, but may not be helpful to those who are already disabled by spinal injury. The compound, which is derived from streptococcus bacteria, appears to work by preventing scarring in the spinal cord, a process that occurs in the first 2 to 3 weeks after injury.
Some studies have suggested that spinal cord trauma induces angiogenesis, the process of blood vessel formation, as well as the infiltration of inflammatory cells that ultimately lead to scars that interfere with nerve connections.
``The data we have generated may be relevant to acute spinal cord injury in the future and we hope to be in the clinic by the end of next year, but we can't promise anything to chronic (spinal cord injury patients),'' Hellerqvist said. ``But obviously, that's the next area where we are working.''
SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 1998;95:13188-13193.
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