Paralytics may be able to walk again after Israeli scientists discovered a treatment which was successfully tested on mice.
"If this works in humans, and we believe that it will, it can offer all paralyzed people hope that they may walk again," Prof. Tal Dvir, head of research team, told The Times of Israel.
Dvir's research team includes Dr. Reuven Edri, Lior Wertheim and Dr. Yona Goldshmit.
The findings was reportedly published by the journal, "Advanced Science," on Monday.
The study was conducted by the researchers of Tel Aviv University's Sagol Center for Regenerative Biotechnology, Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research.
In the experiment, the scientists engineered spinal cord tissue from human cells and implanted into two groups of mice, one with short-term paralysis and the other in chronic condition.
Just within three months after having artificial spinal cords, the mice with acute paralysis were able to regain their ability to walk. The mice with chronic paralysis, on the other hand, showed significant improvements six weeks after receiving implants.
While the latter garnered 80% success rate, the former got 100%.
"This is the first instance in the world in which implanted engineered human tissues have generated recovery in an animal model for long-term chronic paralysis, which is the most relevant model for paralysis treatments in humans," Dvir shared to The Jerusalem Post.
The head researcher said that if the treatment is applied to humans, the tissue will be taken from the patient's own body. In this way, the damaged tissue will regenerate without the "risk of rejection" and the recipient's immune system does not have to be suppressed.
Dvir is optimistic that the treatment will help the paralytics finally be able to walk again.
"There are millions of people around the world who are paralyzed due to spinal injury, and there is still no effective treatment for their condition," he stated.
"People injured at a very young age are destined to sit in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives, bearing all the social, financial, and health-related costs of paralysis. We hope to solve this and help them to walk," he added.
Further, he revealed that the clinical trial is already being discussed with the United States' Food and Drug Administration. But Dvir is confident that the request will get a "speedy approval" given their "cutting-edge regenerative medicine technology" and the unavailability of effective treatment for paralysis in the world today.
Since the research is now at an advanced stage, the head researcher expects clinical trials to happen in less than three years. Matricelf, which Dvir founded in 2019 alongside industry partners, will conduct the trials.
"We've been using human implants on the mice, not mice implants, which means we're not going back to the beginning of research to move over to humans. Rather, we know how to prepare the implants for humans, which is what makes us optimistic we will move quickly to clinical trials," he said.
The team is also currently doing research to use the technology in treating other illnesses such as Parkinson's disease, myocardial infarction, brain trauma and age-related macular degeneration.
