Paralyzed mice walk again after just a few weeks

We all could use some good news, and this is quite extraordinary.

“Using gene therapy, a research team has succeeded in getting mice to walk again after a complete cross-sectional injury. The nerve cells produced the curative protein themselves.”

Town mice and country mice.

The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse both like this news.       |          Illustrated by Milo Winter

Normally spinal cord damage is pretty much permanent. Even though we all still have the same genes that built the nerves in the first place, no one seemed to have the right reboot code that could switch on the correct genes in the right order to do the repair. And to give you some idea of the complexity of this, in 2018 a different team estimated that as many as 580 genes may be involved in axon regeneration.

Plenty of researchers have been tapping on the windows and doors of the Nerve Regrowth Holy Grail. This time, instead of just regenerating a nerve in a petri dish, or even even a live animal, they’ve gone a leap further. These mice could walk again. 

And all it took was a single injection? “This was a great surprise to the researchers”.

Nerve cell, graphic.

Wikimedia

The magic molecule this time was Interleukin 6 (IL-6). It’s a kind of command molecule in the immune system. It foils easy descriptions — it’s anti-inflammatory and produced after exercise, but it’s also higher after stress, eating too much, not sleeping enough, and in obese people.  If you are sick or damaged, IL6 seems to rise.

This team made an artificial version of IL-6 and attached it to a virus. This is a form of Gene therapy. What we don’t know is whether it works in humans, how long the repair lasts, or what the side effects would be. Does it work on old injuries or only new ones?

We also don’t know why governments are pouring billions of dollars into wind and solar farms in an attempt to control the weather. Twenty years from now, the nations that research medicine and figure it out will be wildly rich. Those that have high electricity costs and nothing to sell, but their moral superiority, will be hoping the former nations will be nice to them.

Designer cytokine makes paralyzed mice walk again

or potential therapeutic approaches, the Bochum team has been working with the protein hyper-interleukin-6. “This is a so-called designer cytokine, which means it doesn’t occur like this in nature and has to be produced using genetic engineering,” explains Dietmar Fischer. His research group already demonstrated in a previous study that hIL-6 can efficiently stimulate the regeneration of nerve cells in the visual system.

This all sounds good but we are (probably) pretty happy if we don’t need to try this just yet:

In their current study, the Bochum team induced nerve cells of the motor-sensory cortex to produce hyper-Interleukin-6 themselves. For this purpose, they used viruses suitable for gene therapy, which they injected into an easily accessible brain area. There, the viruses deliver the blueprint for the production of the protein to specific nerve cells, so-called 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 hyper-interleukin-6 was also transported directly to these otherwise difficult-to-access essential nerve cells and released there in a controlled manner.

Applied in one area, effective in several areas

“Thus, gene therapy treatment of only a few nerve cells stimulated the axonal regeneration of various nerve cells in the brain and several motor tracts in the spinal cord simultaneously,” points out Dietmar Fischer. “Ultimately, this enabled the previously paralyzed animals that received this treatment to start walking after two to three weeks. This came as a great surprise to us at the beginning, as it had never been shown to be possible before after full paraplegia.”

The research team is now investigating to what extent this or similar approaches can be combined with other measures to optimize the administration of hyper-Interleukin-6 further and achieve additional functional improvements. They are also exploring whether hyper-interleukin-6 still has positive effects in mice, even if the injury occurred several weeks previously. “This aspect would be particularly relevant for application in humans,” stresses Fischer. “We are now breaking new scientific ground. These further experiments will show, among other things, whether it will be possible to transfer these new approaches to humans in the future.”

The German Research Foundation funded the study.

The Press release found at Medical Express 

As an aside, Covid appears to raise IL6 in lung tissue, which is not such a good thing when inflammation is running amok, and researchers are trying various anti-IL6 drugs to see if that helps. Though, of course, if there are cheap out-of -patent drugs that do, we won’t expect to see Anthony Fauci telling us to use them.

REFERENCE

Marco Leibinger et al. Transneuronal delivery of hyper-interleukin-6 enables functional recovery after severe spinal cord injury in mice, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20112-4

Wikimedia:

9.7 out of 10 based on 60 ratings

44 comments to Paralyzed mice walk again after just a few weeks

  • #
    Curious George

    When we force the body to grow something that would not grow naturally, make sure that it does not lead to cancer.

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      William

      If I was a severely paralysed and had the chance of walking, but a risk of being treated for cancer down the track, I would opt to walk and enjoy a better quality of life and accept cancer, which I may or may not already be destined to develop.

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      • #
        Richard Jenkins

        What about a vaccine developed and tested in months?
        I have always been pro vaccine and had my flu shots. The covid vaccine scares me. I would prefer my children and grandchildren mingled and became immune as nature intended. Perhaps off colour for a couple of days is better than being stressed out by lockdowns and having our debt indefinately. I want to go places where they have had many incidents. States like Qld have delayed their covid problem.

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          Geoffrey Williams

          Sorry Richard but mingeling does not necessarily pass on immunity.
          On the contrary it simply passes on the virus.
          GeoffW

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          • #
            Richard Jenkins

            And to prove that your evidence is ??? I know that antibody tests here done have found tht 80% of positives had never even felt sick. Testing shows very few positives. People with the virus and no symptoms don’t get tested and they are carriers.Lke typhoid Mary. Let’s fight the virus not pretend to eradicate it. That’s stupid.
            Will you be sure the vaccine is not dangerous over time and or creates antibodies. Evidence suggest contact with victims creates antibodies naturally.

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      • #
        OldOzzie

        William,

        have had Cancer for 20 years – migrated skin from all over my body to head and face – saw a photo of myself with 2/3rds of my Family at 4 year olds Birthday Party last week, and saw what 3 rounds of Radiotherapy after Ops, and 2 Rounds of increased Dose Chemo after 13 hour Op with 5 nights ICU, had done to my face, and also had not realised how ugly I look – no wonder people flinch when they come near me.

        However science is amazing and am coming up to 15th Round Cancer Immunotherapy Infusion and it is working – I am extremely lucky having never felt ill or had any side effects from treatments during the last 20 years (OK bit of a Fib there – Legionnaires Disease did knock me around and the year following when I was due to start Chemo for CLL – thought I had pneumonia but Lungs Full of Fluid and damaged heart down to 35% Capacity, but bounced back from that)

        Had scheduled a meeting with last Op Plastics, re fixing a developing problem with eye, after Immunotherapy Infusion in December but as they had finished their Cancer Clinic they came to assess me during Infusion – they said since we are doing eye, would you like us to fix some of the slop on the face – I said “I am Ugly anyway, can’t see what it would improve”

        However having seen Birthday Photo, will ask if they can do suggested “Prettying UP” when I go for Pre-Op Monday.

        I have been impressed by Medical Science especially the Immunotherapy Trial that I am on and the Medical Staff I have dealt with.

        You are correct when you say – “If I was a severely paralysed and had the chance of walking, but a risk of being treated for cancer down the track, I would opt to walk and enjoy a better quality of life and accept cancer,”

        50

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    Outstanding news.

    This is the sort of thing that “research” should be focused on.

    As you say Jo, it contrasts markedly with the stupidity-evil-misdirection of what has been done with the new Wind – Solar energy extraction “research” of recent decades.

    By all means, we should be doing research on wind/solar/tidal energy systems, but only on a scale that is proportionate to the facts.

    At the moment these new green energy systems are in their infancy and every engineer knows the damage done to our western society by the too early introduction.

    This interleukin discovery is so positive!

    KK

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    • #
      ghl

      Every big wind turbine represents the price of half a dozen M.R.I. scanners.

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        And the scanners are actually useful.

        50

      • #
        Bozotheclown

        Every big wind turbine represents the price of half a dozen M.R.I. scanners.

        That is alright because it takes half a dozen windmills to power one MRI

        The fuzzy math works.

        50

    • #
      Geoffrey Williams

      Hi Keith I wish that I could agree with your statement ‘ . . every engineer knows the damage . ‘
      Truth is very few so called engineers really understand what is going on at the present time with renewable energy. I agree that we should in fact take a step back and rethink things. The challenge is to get the message out there and convince these people. As things are at present we are destroying ‘a perfectly good civilization ‘
      GeoffW

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        True Geoffrey, it was a fairly open statement.

        Not every engineer is necessarily equipped to assess the renewables situation but many of us are and the truth is astounding because it contradicts everything that renewables stand for.

        Since Zahli and her team managed to kick Tony Abbott where it hurts everyone in the electricity business is aware of the multilayered management complex which will quickly cancel them if the “truth” that management pushes is contradicted.

        Renewables are green, clean, cheap and CO2 effective.

        After Murray Salby, Peter Ridd and Bob Carter everyone in the know understands the deal: keep quiet or lose your job: for being uncollegial.

        KK

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        • #
          Richard Jenkins

          But 2 out of 3 qld supreme court judges willfind justice upsets tweets. I hopethe high court is rational again as they were with Pell.

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      • #
        Richard Jenkins

        Geoffrey, Spokespersons for engineers are political. Like the AMA. They don’t represent their members. I know engineers disgusted with AGW claims made by their supposed representatives. I went alone to hear Christopher Monkton. I found myself sorrounded with doctors. They were not a goup but had come individually all motivated to get tips to help patients stressed out by AGW propaganda. Karen Phelps was an AMA president. That is a worry.

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        • #
          Kalm Keith

          Interesting.
          Good to hear that there are doctors who are going against their Public leadership to help patients.

          While those more aware doctors may be able to relieve some anxiety by giving the truth that human origin CO2 is not dangerous there are other issues.

          The political abuse of the CAGW meme by so many does result in serious consequences for the average person.

          When the average person loses their job in the aluminium industry because governments “ramp up” the cost of electricity, when farmers can’t get river water because it has been sold quietly to China, when bushfires rage out of control because politicians refuse to allow proper environmental management: We All Suffer.

          As the American situation shows to those who seek the truth, politicians may put up a caring public face, but really have only one aim; riches and control.

          KK

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  • #
    Yonniestone

    Quick, roll this out as a vaccine to fight the paralysis pandemic, what could go wrong?

    70

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Something that restores brain cells?
      Mod Note I have not included a potential patient -a prominent, very prominent, citizen of the USA in this comment.

      70

  • #
    Andrew Partington

    That’s fantastic news! I hope it’s transferable to humans. I had some friends at the Quad centre in Perth that i used to help take shopping – I used to say, maybe medicine will find a cure soon, maybe you will walk again. Sadly they all died , one by one over the years. One, whom we called Yogi, was a particularly sad case – though he wouldn’t have like to hear me call him that! He broke his back in a bike riding accident when he was sixteen and had spent the large part of his life unable to walk. Lovely guy.

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  • #
    Richard Jenkins

    I would like to see the brilliant scientists with PhD at CSIRO get involved. I know several of them. They are all embarassed by the political nonsense promoted by the climate division and do not support AGW. The CSIRO had a proud history that is deserved. Sadly a few in the climate division destroy credibility. I note CSIRO publications on climate have disclaimers in small print. The authors state blatant lies.

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    • #
      ghl

      Our primary problem is the MSM.

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    • #
      ghl

      Our primary problem is the MSM.

      Also your point about disclaimers. Scientists publishing their work with disclaimers? Doubt is implicit in the scientific method. A disclaimer says that you know that you are overstating your conclusions, and fear being held to account.

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      • #
        Richard Jenkins

        ghl, I haven’t read formal publications. I was referring to bookshop shelves. The CSIRO are on the covers as the publishers of garbage. I would not buy them but friends give them to me as comical entertainment. They are not scientific just indoctrination easily disproved.

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      • #
  • #
    Harley

    [Off topic.]AD

    01

  • #
    Chris

    Sounds wonderful, maybe we could begin with much loved pets such as the sheep dog who caught the car .

    30

  • #
    David Maddison

    Good news.

    It’s too bad the world wastes so many resources on useless Leftist programs like “renewables”.

    Some comments.

    1) How old were the injuries that were regrown and “healed”?

    2) This is not the first time spinal cord regrowth has been reported.

    3) Did the mice have to learn to walk again? When this has been done before the nerve bundles randomly reconnected so that a bundle that controlled say a toe, would control something else. Not a huge big deal if the brain has to learn to remap things, however.

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  • #
    Kevin a

    If the Vaccine worked why does Biden and Fauchi still wear masks?

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    • #

      Takes 10 days to three weeks to get a reaction and for many people it takes a second dose as well, and then there is the big unknown… how long does that last, and will it work on the new strains, and will it stop transmission?

      There may or may not be good reasons for them to wear masks. There are ominous hints that the vaccine rollout won’t give us the freedoms we all want.

      Like I said, antivirals — antivirals — antivirals. Why aren’t we using ivermectin, HCQ, bromhexine, mass Vit D, zinc, etc etc.

      141

      • #
        Hum

        Jo, check out Dr. James tour from Rice University who has developed a carbon nano-ribbon technology to restore spinal cords. Here is a video of it. Tour may be the best chemist in the world these days.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiOdzheQx5U

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      • #
        David Maddison

        Originally antivirals such as HCQ were banned simply because Trump’s experts advocated for them and the Left preferred to kill people so they could prove “orange man bad”.

        Now the American Medical Association has quietly withdrawn their opposition to HCQ but it’s tough to find the announcement.

        Just before the US Election, the America Medical Association rescinded its opposition for the use of HCQ for early stage C-19 infection. As we all knew, Trump’s experts were right all along.

        https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2020-10/nov20-handbook-addendum.pdf

        “4 RESOLVED, That our American Medical Association rescind its statement calling for physicians
        “5 to stop prescribing hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine until sufficient evidence becomes
        “6 available to conclusively illustrate that the harm associated with use outweighs benefit early in
        “7 the disease course. Implying that such treatment is inappropriate contradicts AMA Policy
        “8 H-120.988, “Patient Access to Treatments Prescribed by Their Physicians,” that addresses off
        “9 label prescriptions as appropriate in the judgement of the prescribing physician (Directive to
        “10 Take Action); and be it further
        “11
        “12 RESOLVED, That our AMA rescind its joint statement with the American Pharmacists
        “13 Association and American Society of Health System Pharmacists, and update it with a joint
        “14 statement notifying patients that further studies are ongoing to clarify any potential benefit of
        “15 hydroxychloroquine and combination therapies for the treatment of COVID-19 (Directive to Take
        “16 Action); and be it further
        “17
        “18 RESOLVED, That our AMA reassure the patients whose physicians are prescribing
        “19 hydroxychloroquine and combination therapies for their early-stage COVID-19 diagnosis by
        “20 issuing an updated statement clarifying our support for a physician’s ability to prescribe an FDA21 approved medication for off “label use, if it is in her/his best clinical judgement, with specific
        “22 reference to the use of hydroxychloroquine and combination therapies for the treatment of the
        “23 earliest stage of COVID-19 (Directive to Take Action); and be it further
        “24
        “25 RESOLVED, That our AMA take the actions necessary to require local pharmacies to fill valid
        “26 prescriptions that are issued

        Now the various anti-Trump governments, politicians and public serpents find themselves in a difficult situation. If they unban it in Australia they will have to admit they banned it based on no evidence and then they’ll be considered responsible for all the covid deaths, which of course they are.

        120

      • #
        Kevin a

        “None of the vaccines that have been approved for use have demonstrated that they can stop transmission.”

        “Vaccinated individuals will be protected from the worst of COVID-19 but will not be protected from becoming infected,” Professor Shine said.

        https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/coronavirus-australia-professor-john-shine-slams-astrazeneca-vaccine-myths/news-story/57c7d1a046c2d674d99172ad880e262d

        What would a Pointless vaccine look like?

        70

      • #
        Annie

        Jo, sorry, didn’t steer straight while using only one eye, reading while doing eye-drops! I meant a definite green thumb!

        60

      • #
        Kevin a

        https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1316519769240211458
        The Biden Family is the most corrupt political family in American history

        70

      • #
        OldOzzie

        Top Conservative Leader Tom Fitton Is Still Suspended by Twitter 7 Days After a 7 Day Suspension for Tweeting the Truth on HCQ

        Tom Fitton from Judicial Watch was censored by Twitter for 7 days on January 9th.
        Big Tech, Big Media, the Democrats and foreign states are doing all they can to prevent any mention of Joe Biden’s election steal away from President Trump. We’ve never seen anything like this in a country that once valued free speech. Fitton is a leader in the conservative movement.

        Fitton posted a truthful tweet on the drug Hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that continues to prove its success in treating the China virus.

        There are now over 193 international studies that prove the effectiveness of Hydroxychloroquine in treating the coronavirus, especially when administered at the onset of the disease.

        The tech giants would rather see tens of thousands of innocent people die than allow this information out to the public. We have never seen anything like this.

        On Saturday we heard word that Tom Fitton is still suspended off of Twitter — 14 days later. Tom is a leading voice for truth in this nation.

        Tom Fitton wrote about this on Facebook:

        Major new study on #Hydroxychloroquine and other potential #COVID19 treatments reports “when started earlier in the hospital course, for progressively longer durations and in outpatients, antimalarials may reduce the progression of disease, prevent hospitalization, and are associated with reduced mortality” and #HCQ “has has a well-characterized safety profile that should not raise undue alarm.” https://www.amjmed.com/art…/S0002-9343(20)30673-2/fulltext
        Twitter supposedly banned me (and is still banning me) for simply saying HCQ is a safe drug!

        60

      • #
        Richard Jenkins

        My grandaughter is a pharmacist in a large country hospital. The vaccines are a huge problem. Refrigeration is a major issue. New fridges have to be found, located and installed. There is transport at many levels. From manufacture to local transport to distance transport to local transport to within the hospital to the hosptal new fridges within the hospital to local transport to a vaccination site within that site to the injection room permanently maintained -70C.
        Perhaps that explains various results. Do we get a -70C injection. The time allowed from fridge removal to use is 3 minutes.
        GP doctors don’t have -70C fridges. What is liquid at -70C?

        60

      • #
        OldOzzie

        Jo,

        Richard Jenkins sums up my concerns re Why Does Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine Need To Be Kept Colder Than Antarctica?

        January 24, 2021 at 10:36 am · Reply

        My grandaughter is a pharmacist in a large country hospital. The vaccines are a huge problem. Refrigeration is a major issue. New fridges have to be found, located and installed. There is transport at many levels. From manufacture to local transport to distance transport to local transport to within the hospital to the hosptal new fridges within the hospital to local transport to a vaccination site within that site to the injection room permanently maintained -70C.
        Perhaps that explains various results. Do we get a -70C injection. The time allowed from fridge removal to use is 3 minutes.

        GP doctors don’t have -70C fridges. What is liquid at -70C?

        From Referenced Article above

        Two drugmakers, Pfizer and Moderna, have announced promising interim results for their vaccine candidates, raising hopes in the U.S. and abroad that the end of the pandemic may be in sight. But, if and when the vaccines are authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, distributing them presents a daunting challenge.

        One big reason? One of the front-runners in the vaccine race — the one made by Pfizer — needs to be kept extremely cold: minus 70 degrees Celsius, which is colder than winter in Antarctica. Moderna has said that its vaccine needs to be frozen too, but only at minus 20 Celsius, more like a regular freezer.

        Since there will be limited vaccine doses at first, immunization managers across the country will need to have plans to distribute any and all vaccine doses that are available. For months, they’ve been puzzling over the particular challenges presented by the Pfizer vaccine, which requires these ultra-cold conditions.

        Plus

        Here’s why COVID-19 vaccines like Pfizer’s need to be kept so cold

        Freezing RNA-based vaccines keeps their fragile components from breaking down

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    • #
      Klem

      Good question Kevin. Now that Biden is President, there’s no need for him to wear masks anymore. We’ll see how long this charade continues.

      Besides, the fact that cov-2 cases continue to rise in N America is strong evidence that masks and social distancing protocols are ineffective. And with a 99.5% survival rate, there is no reason to get a vaccine that is supposedly 94% effective. It’s a regular flu season.

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  • #
    Kalm Keith

    Ping ch.

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  • #
    Andrew

    This sounds like real research – a devastating problem – people getting on with it and finding solutions. Its early days and will suffer many setbacks but research like this will eventually bear fruit and hopefully one day alleviate serious suffering. I can’t help contrast this – and its lack of funding – with the trillions poured into the climate “science” fraud and its non-sensical “solutions”. Things really need to change. We could fix so many problems. If only the existing research money wasn’t squandered on fictions that simply don’t matter.

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  • #
    Philip

    holy sheeeeit! Wow. Theres money in bio tech stocks surely.

    00