News

Chronic pain is a common and often debilitating problem that can significantly impact function and quality of life for patients with spinal cord injury.

To help find treatment solutions, UBC researchers are investigating the effectiveness of a drug called Targin at treating chronic pain in individuals with spinal cord injury. The research team is now recruiting study participants.

Potential First-in-Class Therapy for Chronic Spinal Cord Injury

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Jan. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ReNetX Bio announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the company Fast Track Designation for ReNetX Bio’s clinical therapy (AXER-204) for the potential treatment of Chronic Spinal Cord Injury (SCI).  ReNetX Bio is currently conducting a Phase 1/2 clinical trial “RESET” in patients with SCI, with topline results expected in 2021.

Implanting an infusion pump that continuously delivers the muscle relaxant baclofen to the spinal canal is a safe and effective treatment for muscle stiffness in people with neurological conditions, including cerebral palsy (CP), and provides a great degree of satisfaction to patients, according to 19 years of clinical experience at a single center in Portugal.

Columbia engineers invent a robotic trunk-support-trainer to retrain patients with spinal cord injury to sit more stably and gain an expanded active sitting workspace

Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine have made several novel discoveries in the field of spinal cord injuries (SCI). Most recently, the team led by Xiao-Ming Xu, Ph.D., has been working to determine how to activate movement after a spinal cord injury at the ninth thoracic level, where nerve fibers from the brain down to the spinal cord are interrupted. Instead of focusing on the injury site, researcher Qi Han and his colleagues modulated the spared lumbar circuits below the injury to improve recovery from SCI, using animal models.

Four months after treating them, Yasuhiro Shiga, MD, PhD, checked on his rats. Walking into the lab, he carried minimal expectations. Treating spinal cord injuries with stem cells had been tried by many people, many times before, with modest success at best. The endpoint he was specifically there to measure — pain levels — hadn’t seemed to budge in past efforts.

Spinal cord injuries caused by accidents, violence and disease paralyze from the neck down more than 5,000 people every year. In the first few months after injury, some people regain some movement and sensation in their limbs. Those who do not show improvement in the first few months are unlikely to ever recover.

In mouse study, nerve pain drug gabapentin promotes regeneration of neural circuits

Long-term treatment with gabapentin, a commonly prescribed drug for nerve pain, could help restore upper limb function after a spinal cord injury, new research in mice suggests.

In the study, mice treated with gabapentin regained roughly 60 percent of forelimb function in a skilled walking test, compared to restoration of approximately 30 percent of forelimb function in mice that received a placebo.

U of A research has a proven concept to restore spinal function.

U of A research has a proven concept to restore spinal function.
When Vivian Mushahwar first applied to grad school, she wrote about her idea to fix paralysis by rewiring the spinal cord.

Early research at Mayo Clinic using stem cell therapy to treat spinal cord injuries has produced results for one patient that doctors describe as “beyond expectations.”