Researchers re-grow damaged nerves with polymer and protein
Kathmandu, January 24
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers created a biodegradable nerve guide—a polymer tube—filled with growth-promoting protein that can regenerate long sections of damaged nerves, without the need for transplanting stem cells or a donor nerve.
As per the Science Daily, the researchers tested the technology in monkeys and the results of those experiments published in Science Translational Medicine.
"We're the first to show a nerve guide without any cells was able to bridge a large, 2-inch gap between the nerve stump and its target muscle. Our guide was comparable to, and in some ways better than, a nerve graft," said senior author Kacey Marra quoted as saying by the Science Daily.
It is reported that half of wounded American soldiers return home with injuries to their arms and legs, which aren't well protected by body armor, often resulting in damaged nerves and disability. Among civilians, car crashes, machinery accidents, cancer treatment, diabetes and even birth trauma can cause significant nerve damage, affecting more than 20 million Americans.
The most common treatment for longer segments of nerve damage is to remove a skinny sensory nerve at the back of the leg—which causes numbness in the leg and other complications, but has the least chance of being missed—chop it into thirds, bundle the pieces together and then sew them to the end of the damaged motor nerve, usually in the arm. But only about 40 to 60% of the motor function typically returns.
However, the biodegradable nerve guide returned about 80% of fine motor control in the thumbs of four monkeys, each with a 2-inch nerve gap in the forearm.
As per the researchers, the guide is made of the same material as dissolvable sutures and peppered with a growth-promoting protein—the same one delivered to the brain in a recent Parkinson's trial—which releases slowly over the course of months.
