MICE paralysed by a spinal cord injury can walk again if they are quickly
given a drug that blocks the growth of new blood vessels.
The drug, CM101, is a polysaccharide made by streptococcus bacteria. It has
shown promise in clinical trials as an anticancer agent that cuts off the blood
supply to tumours. Carl Hellerqvist and his colleagues at Vanderbilt University
in Nashville, Tennessee, wondered if inhibiting blood vessel growth in damaged
spinal cords might prevent scar tissue forming and allow regeneration of
neurons.
The researchers injured the spinal cords of 26 mice and gave them an
intravenous injection of CM101 one hour later. Fourteen other injured mice had
no medication. Six of these mice died within a day, and none regained any
mobility in their paralysed limbs.
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But the mice treated with CM101 fared better. All but one survived for at
least 28 days after surgery, and 24 of them recovered the ability to walk within
2 to 12 days, the team reports in this week鈥檚 Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences (vol 95, p 13 188). 鈥淲e鈥檙e cautiously optimistic,鈥� says
Hellerqvist. He adds that a company called CarboMed in Brentwood, Tennessee,
hopes to try out the drug for spinal injury in clinical trials next year.
James Guest, a neurosurgeon at the Barrow Neurologic Institute in Phoenix,
Arizona, calls the observations 鈥渆xtremely encouraging鈥�. However, he can鈥檛
explain why many of the untreated mice died, and would like to see the
experiment repeated in an independent lab. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a number of things that
don鈥檛 quite make sense,鈥� he says. 鈥淗owever, that doesn鈥檛 take away from the
possibility that there鈥檚 something important here.鈥�