Research Highlights
Compound may ease spinal-cord damage
October 15, 2008
Neurobiologists at the Kansas City (Mo.) VA Medical Center
found that rats given a certain compound after sustaining a spinal
cord injury had 50 percent less tissue damage in the spine than
control rats. The experimental drug, which inhibits a gene called
caspase-3, also enabled better functional recovery. The authors, led
by Bruce Citron, PhD, suggest that “caspase-3 inhibition may be a
viable therapy in the early hours” after spinal cord injury and that
their results "may have significant implications for emergency
management of human spinal cord injury." (Spine, Oct. 2008)
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