Hope for millions as paralyzed mice walk again after just TWO WEEKS of breakthrough gene therapy

A groundbreaking study has given paralyzed mice the ability to walk again, and it offers hope to approximately 5.4 million people worldwide who suffer from paralysis.

Researchers from the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany stimulated the mice’s damaged spinal nerves to regenerate with a design protein.

The paralyzed rodents lost mobility in both hind legs, but after receiving the treatment, they only started walking for two to three weeks.

The team induced nerve cells of the motor-sensory cortex to produce hyper-interleukin-6.

To do this, they injected genetically engineered viruses to ‘deliver the blueprint for the production of the protein to specific nerve cells’.

Researchers are now investigating whether hyperinterleukin-6 still has positive effects in mice, even if the injury occurred a few weeks earlier, which will enable them to determine if the treatment is ready for human trials.

The protein, or hyperinterleukin-6 (hIL-6), works by the main characteristic of spinal cord injuries that cause disability, causing damage to nerve fibers, as axons.

Axons send signals back and forth between the brain, skin and muscles, and when they stop working, so does communication.

And if these fibers do not recover from an injury, patients suffer paralysis or numbness.

The protein is a cytokine, which is important for the signaling of the cell, but ‘designer’ means that it does not occur in nature and can only be produced using genetic manipulation.

“The special thing about our study is that the protein is not only used to stimulate the nerve cells that it produces itself, but that it is also carried further (by the brain),” said Dietmar Fischer, head of the team. told an interview with Reuters.

Researchers have previously used a similar gene therapy to regenerate nerve cells in the visual system, but the recent study focused on those in the motor sensory cortex to produce the designer protein.

Fischer and his team used viruses in the therapy that stimulated the nerve cells in the motor-sensory cortex to make HIL-6 themselves.

The viruses were also adapted for gene therapy and included blueprints to direct the protein around the nerve cells, known as motoneurons.

Since these cells are also linked via axonal side branches to other nerve cells in other brain areas that are important for movement processes such as walking, the hyperero interleukin-6 was also transported directly to this otherwise difficult access to essential nerve cells and released there. in a controlled manner.

“The treatment of gene therapy of only a few nerve cells thus stimulated the axonal regeneration of different nerve cells in the brain and several movements in the spinal cord simultaneously,” shows Dietmar Fischer.

‘Eventually, it enabled the previously paralyzed animals receiving this treatment to start walking after two to three weeks.

“It was a big surprise for us at the beginning, as it has never been possible before after full paraplegia.”

The team is now investigating ways to improve the administration of hyper-Interleukin-6, with the aim of achieving additional functional improvements.

They are also investigating whether hyperinterleukin-6 still has positive effects in mice, even though the injury occurred a few weeks earlier.

“This aspect is especially relevant for application to people,” Fischer said.

‘We are now breaking new scientific ground. These further experiments will show, among other things, whether it will be possible to pass on these new approaches to humans in the future. ‘