Start with algae, add light, treat paralysis.
It’s one of the coolest science stories coming out of the big
Society for Neuroscience meeting this week in Washington D.C.
Scientist
Jerry Silver, who sits on the Reeve Foundation Science Advisory Committee, and who got partial funding for this work from the Foundation, infected certain spinal cord neurons with genetic information from a common single-cell algae called
Chlamydomonas. When activated by a flashing blue light, a part of the algae called channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) acts as a gate, depolarizing ion channels and thus promoting signal transmission.
Silver’s trick was to induce the ChR2 in the part of the spinal cord (second vertebrae, near the phrenic motor pool) that relates to breathing. By so doing he was able to harness the nerve signal and – to his astonishment – allow restoration of breathing function in cervically injured rats. What's more, the stimulation lasted a while: the nerve cells associated with breathing appeared to relearn their native function.
In another experiment, the light sensitive chemical trigger was placed in the area of the Onuf's nucleus (in the sacral spinal cord, involved in urinary and bowel continence). Again, blue light switched on nerve signals that led to improved bladder control.
Silver described the work last summer at the annual meeting of the American Spinal Injury Association. “It was totally unexpected,” he said. “I was awestruck when function returned.”
Silver told reporters this week this line of work could revolutionize SCI treatment. Such potential is not close at hand, but because it would eliminate surgery or drugs, it’s the most energizing SCI cure news in quite a while.
(Note: Silver was at ASIA to get the
Erica Nader award for his long and legendary dedication to SCI cure. The award is named for a Detroit woman paralyzed seven years ago in a car wreck. She was the first U.S. patient to get olfactory ensheathing cells transplanted in Portugal (2003); not getting significant improvement from that experimental procedure Nader now promotes the healing potential of intense exercise, including the founding of an exercise facility in her hometown. Her motto: “Train insane or stay the same.”)
Silver and his team officially released the blue-light studies a few days ago during a SFN poster session and simultaneously published the respiratory success in the Journal of Neuroscience. See
Light-Induced Rescue of Breathing after Spinal Cord Injury.
At least two news reports noted this remarkable discovery: the
Economist , and the
Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Mad
