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New Treatment Helps Cure Spinal Injuries
wap writes "Researchers have found that an injection of polyethylene glycol (PEG) into the site of neural injury was very effective in saving neurons in dogs, allowing them to recover their movement after the injury. This is an amazing development. PEG is a simple, safe chemical. Using it as a post-injury treatment could prevent paralysis in thousands of accident victims every year, if hospitals start using it. This doesn't mean we don't need stem cell research, but it is a simple and potentially cheap way to get many of the benefits for spinal injury."
I wasn't aware that PEG was safe. Don't you use that stuff punch holes in cellular membranes? Like when making hybridomas (antibody-producing cells used in research).
Wonder if it act like a support for the cels to regrow on. Darn intersting!
...to cure Superman!
Yes, but, does it work if you are paralyzed from the neck up?
Unknown host pong.
This doesn't mean we don't need stem cell research, but it is a simple and potentially cheap way to get many of the benefits for spinal injury.
Christ, why does everyone feel the need to stick in their two cents about some marginally-related issue? Must everyone try to link every article they submit to some kind of larger issue? I'm starting to think Jon Katz is submitting all these articles under pseudonyms.
That an injection of DMSO would halt swelling and stop nerve and brain damage in trama injuries.
As far as I know, nothing came of it, alledgedly because nobody wanted to do clinical trials since it couldn't be patented.
History repeating itself?
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
i am sure medical grade antifreeze will cost even more than injet ink....
kind of like how superglue can close wounds from razor sharp objects, but hostipal grade liquid bandage probably costs about $200/tube.
this coupled with the earlier report that there would be "advances that would extend the age of a person to 1,000 years of age" sounds like I'll be alive for a looooooong time.
+5, Truth
...and we now sadly bid adieu to the doggy hind-leg cart.
and now back to the fallout shelter...
this is also to be given right after the accident.... the stem cell work is for people with conditions that have set in, let alone all the other possibilities.
it looks like stem cell research will continue to be a necessary evil.
this treatment is no good for patients who are already injured. it does not repair or rebuild nerve cells. it simply prevents them from being killed after injury.
granted, it is an important step, but we need to develop further treatments for the 25% of cases it doesn't work in. while 75% success is astoundingly good in this field, it isn't enough
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
How strange. This very same stuff is used as a green wood preservative. Maybe it could preserve brain cells too. Or not.
How about doing at least 1 test on actual human before declaring this a solution to all trauma injuries. Thanks.
Although his problem was due to "a 20-year history of drinking more than 100g of alcohol per day who had end-stage liver disease and weakness in both legs."
Hmmmmm......sounds like some of the experiments the 13 year old kid next door tried on the neighborhood pets.....only he used Windex.
"Whenever the cause of the people is entrusted to professors, it is lost." ~ V.I. Lenin
Well, in all fairness, there is a reason for that, to a degree. Medical stuff has to be very, very, very sanitary.
TODO: Something witty here...
... besides eating and burrowing under the covers in one's bed.
(I'd wish they had tried this on my Roxy when she blew a disk a couple of years back.)
Don't let yourself be confused. Its not "medical grade antifreeze." That, and stuff you inject into yourself damn well should have higher standards than antifreeze for your car.
Yes, because there can be all kinds of evil bacteria floating around in antifreeze?
I think that you're thinking of propylene glycol, commonly used in de-icing/antifreeze fluids.
the conservation right is very interested. This condition has reached pandemic proportions among their ranks. Maybe this treatment can avoid the ethical delemia that has left so many right wingers untreated.
no joke, each tylenol given in a hospital is at least $12
Ithe ingredients on a can of Dr. Pepper says that it constains Polyethylene Glycol.
Isn't that the same miracle drug.
I wonder where they found this nice group of injured dogs to test that stuff on. I can just see, "get the bat Bill, swing hard and crack its spine, then we'll cure it with PEG". I know it will help people but still makes me wonder.
Material Safety Data Sheet
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
We just don't have any federal funding for the subset of "embryonic."
confused polyethylene glycol with ethylene glycol and wondered what they were doing injecting antifreeze into dogs (and wouldn't it be easier to put it in their water dish?)
Karma: Negative (Mostly affected by dorm trolling)
A while ago, literally about a dozen papers would come out each month professing some miraculous breakthrough in the field. Usually all pretty well done, almost always in big peer-review journals. Very few of these methods have been followed through to clinical trials. The skeptic in me says it's because, as you said, there wasn't always a clear way to profit from it.
My even-more-skeptical side says that a lot of these results get fudged quite a bit because, thanks to recent attention paid to Christopher Reeve/stem cells et al, there's a lot of money floating around and many opportunities for researchers to make a name for themselves. That's why they never pan out -- they don't work.
This isn't to discredit anyone working in academic sciences, almost all of whom are grossly overworked and underpaid. However, the trend in NSF funding in the last five years has been to limit the number of researchers receiving grants, and dole out much larger grants to those few promising studies. It creates very cutthroat competition, forces researchers to overhype their studies, and ultimately causes a lot of scientific dead ends. Worst of all, it gives a lot of false hope to people suffering from a number of injuries/diseases that a cure is just around the corner (as long as you write your congressman to give us more money).
It's really quite sick, and was one of the reasons why I left the field.
Well that and there might be all kinds of random chemicals mixed in with the antifreeze. I prefer my medical supplies to be free of lead, benzene and other potentially toxic chemicals.
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it
"granted, it is an important step, but we need to develop further treatments for the 25% of cases it doesn't work in. while 75% success is astoundingly good in this field, it isn't enough"
Kind of like when the Polio Vaccine was developed.
This, the recent stem cell/paralysis breakthrough, living to 1,000 all coming a few weeks after Christopher Reeves dies? Wow, talk about quitting playing just before your lottery numbers come up.
If I didn't know better, I'd say that these guys were all lining up to announce the moment he died. Either that or that whole "curse of Superman" shit is more powerful than anyone first thought. Quick, let's all take out life insurance policies on Brandon Routh.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Superglue's far to unclean a product, Yeh right!
How many deaths are there a year due to contaminated super-glue?
How many people catch xyz because they cleaned a cut with toilet tissue instead of millspec glaxosmithkline tissue paper?
I'm sorry you can used dental floss and sutures if you want, but hell it's not made by a licensed qualified professional company, so you'll just have to pay glaxo to do a bit more lobying.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
...for the best dog I ever had. Paralyzed at five years old. I was shocked to read this, and am glad that something has finally come out to help those paralysis victims. May our steps forward continue!
There isn't really a "larger issue" here; spinal injuries are one of the most immediately promising applications of stem cell research, and there was an article just like a week or something ago here about curing certain spinal injuries in rats by injecting cordal stem cells.
Since stem cells are currently in the news as a directly competing potential technique for doing the exact same thing the technique in this article does, it seems mentioning them here is both reasonable and germane. If nothing else I think that saying that new experimental spinal cord research techniques are only "marginally related" to new experimental spinal cord research techniques is perhaps not quite fair.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
I'm starting to think Jon Katz is submitting all these articles under pseudonyms.
No I'm not! i mean.. um... polyethylene glycol is l33t, yo, and has no crucial meaning to further investigate the nuances of the reticulation of ruthless mass murdering killers.
Does that mean we'll have to refer to these recovered dogs as PEG-legs?
That was the Dec 1 news...
Could someone *please* inject Bush's brain, or at least the brains of the international observers of the elections (assuming they're not "enemy combatants" in jail without trial already)?
I sense a great need.
Microsoft is pure dog-ma. FreeBSD is pure cat-ma.
A bit of googling turned up the following:
DMSO
William T. Jarvis, Ph.D.
DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) is derived from lignin, the binding substance of trees. The Crown Zellerbach Corporation, a mammoth lumber company, holds a number of patents on DMSO for use as an industrial solvent or liniment for treating pain in horses. Crown Zellerbach licenses DMSO exclusively to Research Industries of Salt Lake City for marketing as a drug called Rimso-50. Topically-applied DMSO has the unusual ability to act as a "chemical hypodermic needle" which is to say that it is rapidly absorbed through the skin and can take with it other substances that ordinarily would not cross the skin's barrier. Topically-applied DMSO produces a garlic-like taste in the mouth and a breath odor. Topical use can cause a rash, blistering, itching, hives, and skin thickening. Intravenous use can cause kidney damage and other adverse side effects.
DMSO was approved by the FDA in 1978 for only one purpose, the treatment of a rare bladder disorder, interstitial cystitis. However, scandal surrounded the FDA's approval of DMSO and some still believe that a cloud hangs over it. Stanley Jacob, MD, served as an supposedly unbiased medical monitor of DMSO between 1974 and 1979, but for three of those years (1974, 1978, and 1979), he was on the Research Industries board of directors. In addition to getting consulting and director's fees, Jacob is said to have bought 50,000 shares of the company's stocks. The medical officer charged with reviewing data from clinical trials of DMSO, K.C. Pani, accepted $36,500 in gratuities from Dr. Jacob during the time. A detailed account of the dubious FDA approval of DMSO is provided by Howard Rosenberg in "The DMSO Affair." [1 ]
DMSO became a darling among the promoters of quackery after CBS-TV's 60 Minutes portrayed the substance as a medical breakthrough [2]. Some arthritis sufferers testified that DMSO had provided relief. The Arthritis Foundation says that DMSO can act as a liniment with a counter-irritating effect temporarily relieving pain, but it does not reduce inflammation as do truly effective arthritis remedies (Arthritis Foundation, undated). A detailed Public Information Memo was issued to the Chapter Executive Directors of the Arthritis Foundation on November 13, 1981, following the publication of a popular trade book.
Mildred Miller, owner/administrator of the Degenerative Disease Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, promoted DMSO for a variety of disorders including arthritis, mental illness, emphysema, and cancer. Miller wrote a book touting DMSO entitled A Little Dab Will Do Ya! (Quality Advertising, 1981). Miller also published Preventive Health News, a tabloid-sized newsletter in which she promoted DMSO and carried on a harangue against the establishment (Miller published another book with the disrespectful title Up Yours FDA). Miller was eventually convicted of Medicare fraud and went to prison [2]. The American Cancer Society issued a statement advising against the use of DMSO for cancer [3].
During its heyday, black market DMSO could be purchased in health food stores, military surplus stores, hardware stores, at swap meet booths, or even from vendors working out of the trunks of their cars parked along highways. Very often black market DMSO is industrial grade, not medical grade. A problem with industrial grade DMSO is that companies bottling the substance as an industrial solvent use the same equipment to bottle other substances. Residual toxic materials can contaminate industrial grade DMSO and may be taken into the body by DMSO's action as a "chemical hypodermic."
Because of DMSO's dangers and legal status, the FDA has had a running battle with DMSO distributors. In 1980, the agency discussed the controversy surrounding the drug in the FDA Consumer [4]. In 1982, the agency reported on actions taken against companies distributing DMSO in the Pacific Northwest [5]. A book touting DMSO, The Persecuted Drug: The Story of DMSO, by Pat McGrady became the
Look at that list of supposed benefits in parent post:
/.'ers would look down on an idiot who got some trojan on their machine by downloading a file from some random website because it promised to "maek your machine run 200% better!!!". Same thing.
It was also shown to relieve pain and swelling, relax muscles, relieve arthritis, improve blood supply and slow the growth of bacteria. It relieves the pain of sprains and even of broken bones.
That is completely utterly absurd. The only was you could possibly imagine that such a useful substance would NOT be in widespread use is if the medical establishment is either completely retarded or some kind of vast conspiracy.
Most
As a veterinary technician, I can attest to DMSO's anti-inflammatory properties. We use it frequently in dogs to reduce swelling and sclerosis at injection sites in dogs undergoing chemotherapy and in dogs and horses to treat shock. While DMSO is commonly used in veterinary medicine, it is not frequently if at all labeled for such use. Most containers of DMSO explicitly say "For solvent use only." We have to warn owners that studies indicate that DMSO has anti-inflammatory properties, but we are in NO WAY responsible for anything bad that might happen.
Also, whenever we use DMSO as a rub or an injection, we triple glove. Like other posters have said, it is readily absorbed through skin. Within about 20 seconds of skin contact a distinct garlic or oyster taste develops and last several hours. The isolation unit at our hospital assumes a rather distinct an unpleasant odor when we have to place a dog on a DMSO IV drip. The fact that it is self-sterilizing in concentrations above 90% is also a bit worrisome to some.
While DMSO has some very real and effective uses in animals, human use is a whole other matter entirely. It would be very interesting to see DMSO undergo testing and its efficacy, as well as side effects, especially long term.
I didn't know that PEG had therapeutic uses. I've always seen it as a solid support for reagents used in chemical reactions. As a chemist, I like PEG because it's inert to a majority of chemical reactions and is insoluble in many common laboratory solvents.
In this study I imagine they're using a solubilized form of PEG. It's probably a lower polymeric weight and in a polar/protic solvent--probably aqueous.
There are a few parts of the article which struck me as questionable, though:
PEG is able to stop this cascade of injury by repairing initial membrane damage
I don't think PEG so much repairs anything as it insulates the cells from each other so that they can all repair themselves without the toxic necrosis products causing further harm. I imagine that PEG also helps to moderate pH and prevent further damage that way.
or by fusing two damaged cells together into a larger functional nerve cell.
That's a neat theory. I doubt it.
Significantly, the polymer is attracted only to damaged nerve cells and tissue when it's injected into the blood stream. It doesn't move into undamaged regions nearby.
That's another neat theory. The pharmaceutical industry would love to know how a molecule with no particular shape or form manages to distinguish between "good" and "bad" cells. I'd be interested to see where the authoring reporter received this idea. I doubt highly that this is from a study of "inject in arm, observe in spine". Most likely the injection site was very close to the damages area and the injected aliquot had a mass and volume low enough to make distribution arbitrarily interpretable.
+++ATHZ 99:5:80
IIRC when I first saw this study (the article makes only oblique reference) PEG can be given via IV. This should be studied in the prehospital setting, so that eventually, we won't think of it as a "hospital" thing, but as a prehospital treatment modality by EMT-Intermediates and Paramedics (after all, you don't hurt your cervical spine at the hospital, you do it in the car wreck, or in that fall, or in that shallow dive...)
Sick of this kind of sleight of hand shit with remotely related crap...
And isn't it odd how the poster tossed out the general term stell cell research...instead of clarifying adult or embryonic...
Kinda reminds me of the post way back about one topic and suddenly half-way through it suddenly goes the "Bush evil" or "Republican's bad" crap.
Keep your side politically motivated comments to yourself people. Post the fucking commentary and article...stick to it or don't bother.
This kind of behavior is worse than trolling on a BB...
=8-(
Antifreeze is *ethylene glycol*.
The article references *polyethylene glycol*
Two different beasts.
"This doesn't mean we don't need stem cell research, but it is a simple and potentially cheap way to get many of the benefits for spinal injury."
What exactly are the benifits of a spinal injury? A
http://www.freeiPods.com/default.aspx?referer=112
Do you really want to find out by having it injected into your body?
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
This doesn't mean we don't need stem cell research, but it is a simple and potentially cheap way to get many of the benefits for spinal injury.
Nice disclaimer. We do need stem cell research. What we do not need is fetal stem cell research.
It's funny that we now live in a time where we worry more about Bic poking bunnies in the eye with pens than harvesting fetuses for so-called research. One day, I hope that everyone gets their head on straight.
but it is a simple and potentially cheap way to get many of the benefits for spinal injury.
There are benefits to spinal injury?
Have you metaroderated recently?
The important question is, if you mix some of this stuff with LSD and put it in a squirtgun and go around squirting people, will they hallucinate?
Who the hell modded this up? Not only off topic, but as my hidden anonymous friend mentioned it was on the front page of /. on Dec 1.
Now, to save myself from offtopic: I'd be interested to see if this treatment could be used to repair long damaged spines. As I understand it PEG is basically glue in this situation, maybe you could cut out the dead part of the cord, sand the edges a little a squirt some of this stuff in.
I wonder if this would work for head injuries too. the same problem occurs with cascading neural damage after the injury. I don't know if I'd be inclined to inject some PEG directly into my brain though. We seem to have a natural aversion to injecting anything into our brains.
God knows what I would have done if I had noticed this article before my accident. I wonder if I would have been crazy enough.
wrt head injuries it has been found that progesterone also provides some protective effect if administered within 48 hours of the injury. Of course, women have less need for this and typically recover better from head injuries. I wonder if this would be true for spinal cord injuries as well.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Here is the abstract of the article:
Lavert, PH et al. A Preliminary Study of Intravenous Surfactants in Paraplegic Dogs: Polymer Therapy in Canine Clinical SCI. Journal of Neurotrauma. December 2004, Vol. 21, No. 12, Pages 1767-1777
Hydrophilic polymers, both surfactants and triblock polymers, are known to seal defects in cell membranes. In previous experiments using laboratory animals, we have exploited this capability using polyethylene glycol (PEG) to repair spinal axons after severe, standardized spinal cord injury (SCI) in guinea pigs. Similar studies were conducted using a related co-polymer Poloxamer 188 (P 188). Here we carried out initial investigations of an intravenous application of PEG or P 188 (3500 Daltons, 30% w/w in saline; 2 mL/kg I.V. and 2 mL/kg body weight or 300 mL P 188 per kg, respectively) to neurologically complete cases of paraplegia in dogs. Our aim was to first determine if this is a clinically safe procedure in cases of severe naturally occurring SCI in dogs. Secondarily, we wanted to obtain preliminary evidence if this therapy could be of clinical benefit when compared to a larger number of similar, but historical, control cases. Strict entry criteria permitted recruitment of only neurologically complete paraplegic dogs into this study. Animals were treated by a combination of conventional and experimental techniques within 72 h of admission for spinal trauma secondary to acute, explosive disk herniation. Outcome measures consisted of measurements of voluntary ambulation, deep and superficial pain perception, conscious proprioception in hindlimbs, and evoked potentials (somatosensory evoked potentials [SSEP]). We determined that polymer injection is a safe adjunct to the conventional management of severe neurological injury in dogs. We did not observe any unacceptable clinical response to polymer injection; there were no deaths, nor any other problem arising from, or associated with, the procedures. Outcome measures over the 68-week trial were improved by polymer injection when compared to historical cases. This recovery was unexpectedly rapid compared to these comparator groups. The results of this pilot trial provides evidence consistent with the notion that the injection of inorganic polymers in acute neurotrauma may be a simple and useful intervention during the acute phase of the injury.
Eponymous Mallard. "It it quacks like a duck, it may be the Eponymous Mallard."
PEG would be most effective in healing the spinal injuries inflicted by Chinese soldiers against Tibetan women and children, but how can we deliver PEG to the Tibetans within the time window?
The question this raised in my mind was: can this be used to prevent alzheimers. Would a daily dose of this stuff (since it reputedly does not have any adverse effects on healthy nerves) help prevent degeneration in brain cells. Even if it couldn't cross the blood-brain barrier could older people get weekly or monthly injections as a preventive measure? Or would this have no effect? Perhaps someone should investigate this (now where is an email link to the researchers ...)
Philosophy.
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
I hate all muslims, and wish they would all die.
Why?
Islam is a religion of peace.
They would never harm anyone.
The response to the problem of less clinical trials being tried isn't more funding of reserch. The answer is to reduce tho barriers to entry for medical research. The FDA needs to get away from restricting new medicines. More clinical trials would be conducted if they were less expensive. The FDA has a lot to do with that expense.
"brxref
spinal injuries" - I mean, how many times have I heard that from the friendly sunday morning evangelist! -LINKOVICH
This is old news, but I'd be careful about throwing the term vaccine around with this one - people outside the area are used to thinking of vaccines as some kind of preventative agent, which this certainly is not. It is still a pretty amazing development, however.
also known as antifreeze! Could this also be the cure for brain freeze from sucking down a slurpee too fast?
More Caffeine. NOW
Super glue=cyanoacrylate, which is hard when it dries. It was invented as an adhesive for the eardrum. for which it is a poor choice. The "hospital grade liquid bandage" is 2-octyl cyanoacrylate, which is flexible when it dries. It costs ~$40 per tube.
What is the motive velocity of a swallow's stem cells.
... AHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Adult or Embryonic?
I... I don't know.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
I'm a car, you insensitive clod!
I prefer the homer simpson garbage can treatment
There is no sig
You mean New Testament. Only the power of God can truley cure. Amen.
Keep the whitehouse white, vote Trump & Palin 2020.
PEG stands for Personal Entertainment orGanizer. A series of PDAs manufactured by Sony, dubbed "Clié".
All PEG will do is replace your spine with a Memory Stick. So much for flexibility... %-)
what would cure us of a bad case of Spinal Tap???
...and no jokes about anti-freeze?!?
This isn't a strawman, it's more like a straw-giant. No one has EVER proposed "harvesting fetuses" for their stem cells. What HAS been proposed is taking stem cells from discarded embryos at the blastocyst stage, left over from in vitro fertilizations, that will NEVER be implanted. These embryos are doomed anyway, so there's no point in denying society of the research benefits involved in using them.
Sean
They're not injecting antifreeze, they're injecting a food additive. Ethylene glycol is antifreeze. Polyethylene glycol is what makes your Mountain Dew syrupy.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
The reason the hospital grade is so expensive is often things like testing, purity, and sterilization. Something clean enough to hold in your hand is not necessarily clean enough to embed in the glued together bone or skin tissue of someone with a suppressed immune system due to illness.
And the hospital grade costs about $20/tube, with a fancy applicator designed to put it on thinly, last I looked on a hospital bill.
Sounds good but isn't it a little scary that they sell this chemical at a woodworking site?
I was certain that Dr. Pepper had PEG as an ingredient. However, I've just read the contents on a can from my fridge, and it's not there.
Am I imagining things? Did they change the formula? Am I thinking of a different soft drink?
You didn't get comment #11000000?
:-P
Ha ha ha ha ha
do you realize that PEG is used to stabilize green wooden products, so they can be machined and not crack or warp when dried!!
I thought modern antifreeze was actually PROPYLENE glycol. That should be different from polyethylene glycol.
It's not much of a leap to go from this to trying in in live animals.
>any promising fetal stem cell treatments. But there are not.
The popular media isn't exactly a scientific journal. Don't make absolute statements, unless you're willing to back them up.
The following are written above the soundbite 5th grade level:
search1
Or just type "embryonic stem cells" here and be ready for some surprises.
it is a simple and potentially cheap way to get many of the benefits for spinal injury
I didn't know that there were any benefits to a spinal injury...
If you read the article, it speaks of neural tissue. Spinal injuries due to breakage or arthritus is different than a spinal injury due to damaged neural tissue.
Then why isn't it being privately funded? The only thing Bush did was to allow an extremely small number of stem cells to actually be studied WITH FEDERAL MONEY, more than any previous president ever did. That doesn't mean a private firm could not do stem cell research themselves. Why can't a Pharma company do it, for example? In fact, if stem cells are so great, then, how come half the people bitching about studying them aren't doing it themselves, or donating to groups that do support them?
The entire stem cell research issue is a left wing fraud.
This is my sig.
Sanitary enough to clean yer wallet eh? hehehehehehehehehehehehehehe
Well, if had to make a database or class diagram, then, "chemicals" would include "atoms". Maybe I should just shut up, because you are right in all other respects about chemicals.
However, if a chemical is safe to use on the skin, it still can be harmful inside the body. Example: air. So I believe when I hear it said PEG is not safe (inside the body).
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
Hmm. Well your right, my reasoning is flawed there. I guess I was working on the unspoken assumption that dangerous substances (to ingest) aren't put in cosmetics on the danger of there being children who might ingest them. And direct insertion into the blood stream could have other complications. Still though, I don't think that they would have injected it unless they knew what was going on (better than we do anyway). It sounds like a great discovery, and if it's handled safely and responsibly, it could be really cool.