New Common Pathway in Neurodegenerative Disease Is a Possible Door to a Point of No Return

(AScribe Newswire) — A just-out study suggests that what keeps chronic nervous system diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and ALS going – until they overcome the internal protective mechanisms a body can throw at them – may largely come down to poor conversational skills.

In the current issue of the journal Neuron, a team of Johns Hopkins scientists reports uncovering a much-sought molecular path that nerve cells (neurons) use to communicate with their neighboring cells, the astrocytes. Continue Reading »

A walking miracle: Swampscott’s Tom Smith overcame an injury that nearly put him in a wheelchair for life

No one was sure if Tom Smith was going to be able to chase down the skater that had slipped away from the pack for a breakaway — least of all his own goalie.

According to Smith’s memory, he never made it.

His body tells a much different story.

Smith, a Swampscott native who was playing for the Northern New England team in Hockey Night in Boston’s summer tournament, has no recollection of advancing any further than the red line Continue Reading »

Stem Cell Transplants Give Ray of Hope To Spinal Cord Injury Patients

The spinal cord injury patient cases do not only highlight the life-saving benefits of stem cell treatment, they also provide a boost to the struggle for the acceptance of stem cell therapy as a recognized field in the medical profession.

- Now, Rohan has got the sensational recovery besides having some power in his legs & he can stand holding walker & caliper, giving a small support to his right leg, after undergoing autologous bone marrow stem cell treatment from one of the hospital in Chennai in 2007. Continue Reading »

Team Regrows Neurons Controlling Movement in Rats

Goal is to one day develop a therapy to help with spinal cord injuries

MONDAY, April 6 (HealthDay News) — Using genetically engineered cells and a virus as a delivery method, researchers were able to regenerate a type of nerve fiber in rat brains that controls movement.

This isn’t the first time researchers have shown it’s possible to re-grow some neurons responsible for movement. But the new research showed regeneration of a particular type of neuron — corticospinal motor axons — that had so far proven resistant to regeneration efforts. Continue Reading »

Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act Signed by President Obama as Part of Omnibus Public Land Bill

Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation expresses appreciation to Congressional co-sponsors for passing first legislation specific to the paralysis community

SHORT HILLS, N.J., March 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, the national, non-profit organization dedicated to finding cures and treatments for spinal cord injuries and improving the lives of people living with paralysis, applauds President Obama for signing the Omnibus Public Lands Bill. Passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on March 25 and the U.S. Senate on January 15, Title XIV of the Bill contains the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act. The Act was named for the late Christopher Reeve and his wife Dana, whose courage and grace in the face of adversity, coupled with their extraordinary activism, were an inspiration to millions around the world. Continue Reading »

Stem Cell Administration Study Demonstrates Improved Quality Of Life For Patients Suffering From Spinal Cord Injury

DaVinci Biosciences, in collaboration with Luis Vernaza Hospital in Ecuador, have announced the publication of study results demonstrating the safety and feasibility of its acute and chronic spinal cord injury treatment platform in Cell Transplantation, a peer-reviewed journal focused on regenerative medicine. The study demonstrates that administering adult autologous bone marrow derived stem cells via multiple routes is feasible, safe, and most importantly, improves the quality of life for both acute and chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. Continue Reading »

U.S. behind on embryonic stem cell research

When I taught at Rutgers University, my department chair was Wise Young, a pioneer in spinal chord rehabilitation. The Keck Center, where the research was done, was conveniently in the same building as my honors class, and they graciously gave us tours. This state-of-the-art facility is designed with low lab benches, so wheelchair-bound people can participate in the research and work in the lab. Dr. Young’s lab has been successful in getting a paralyzed rat with spinal chord injury to walk again. Because of the lack of funding in the U.S., foreign countries — especially China — have taken up the cause, and the U.S. is again left behind in scientific research. There is a network of 24 major spinal-cord injury centers in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Dr. Young writes: “For nearly eight years, the Bush Administration has suppressed not only embryonic stem cell (ESC) research but all stem cell research, even though stem cells are widely acknowledged by scientists to be the most important biomedical advance of the decade. Continue Reading »

The Whole World Is Watching

Hope—and anxiety—run high as the first clinical trial of embryonic-stem-cell therapy begins this summer.

Six weeks before the hoopla over President Barack Obama’s executive order lifting restrictions on embryonic-stem-cell research, Hans Keirstead, a scientist at the University of California, Irvine, was already sipping champagne. In 2005 Keirstead had published a study showing that a therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells could make partially paralyzed rats walk. Continue Reading »

South Florida doctors look to speed up stem cell research

As President Barack Obama eased restrictions on embryonic stem cell research Monday, South Florida scientists said they will pursue the controversial research in their labs as they look for cures.

For more than a decade, Dr. Dalton Dietrich has worked in a lab at the University of Miami Medical School, trying to unlock the secrets of spinal-cord injury and paralysis.

He got a new tool Monday when President Barack Obama lifted a ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Continue Reading »

Bringing Purpose to All Forms of Human Life: Thoughts on Stem Cell Research

Matthew Sanford writes: My wife Jennifer and I have a nine-year-old son named Paul. We are both his biological and everyday parents. This amazing, life-transforming opportunity was made possible by in-vitro fertilization – a process where a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm are combined outside of the woman’s body, helped to form an embryo, and then implanted back into the woman’s womb. Becoming a biological parent was a remarkable turn of events in my life. Thirty years ago, I was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident at age thirteen. I was told that the chances that I could biologically produce a child were a million to one. I accepted this loss as part of my injury and lived my life. When medical science discovered a way to change this fact, an aspect of my ongoing injury healed. Continue Reading »