 |
| Cultured adult mouse brain cells, which researchers at the Queensland Brain Institute are using to investigate nerve cell regeneration Photo courtesy Queensland Brain Institute. |
Every year in Australia about 300 people suffer spinal cord injuries – injuries which largely cannot be healed.
It’s estimated that 10 000 Australians are spinal cord injury patients. The current treatment available to them, as well as to all such patients in the world today, can only limit damage to the nervous system.
So it’s not surprising that one of medicine’s most important goals is to find a way to regenerate damaged nerve cells, and Professor Perry Bartlett (pictured above) of the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) has made a major breakthrough in this research.
Professor Bartlett and his team have discovered a molecule that blocks the regrowth of damaged nerve processes and have succeeded in removing it from mice with damaged spinal cords.
“If we can block that molecule shortly after accidents, we predict it would lead to regrowth of the nerve processes and therefore lead to a recovery of function,” Professor Bartlett said.
Mice which had the molecule removed regenerated nerve processes and experienced dramatic changes in limb usage.
“The mice were able to grasp objects with a limb that had previously been paralysed,” he said.
“We have observed a significant regrowth not seen before.”
QBI is part of the University of Queensland and this research is being conducted in partnership with the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Neuroscience.
Professor Bartlett said the discovery would be vitally important in developing potential therapies for people with head and spinal injuries.
Dr Elizabeth Coulson, of QBI’s Nerve Cell Degeneration Laboratory, is conducting related research to discover ways to reconnect cells that have been damaged by disease or trauma.
Dr Coulson said she had already identified two molecules that blocked cell death and might prove helpful in developing treatments for people with motor neuron disorders or nerve damage such as spinal cord injuries.
“We’re currently seeking commercial partnerships to complete the costly next step of testing the molecules for efficacy and safety in animal models, the first of many steps toward possible clinical trials,” she said.
Professor Bartlett said he expects to present the next report on his research mid-year.
Last reviewed 15 March 2006