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Nose Cells to Cure Spinal Injuries?
dptalia writes "The Guardian has an article on how nose cells may cure spinal injuries. This technique has worked with rats, restoring feeling and movement to limbs damaged by severed nerves. The initial trial will be on people who have lost control of an arm due to the nerves being pulled from the spinal cord." From the article: "If successful, with refinement and research the procedure could be tried on people in a wheelchair. It also has the potential to heal other nerve injuries, such as those caused by stroke, blindness and deafness."
So the news headlines would read: Paraplegic to walk through the power of nose mining
...to the phrase "You've sure got a lot of nerve."
Government's view of the economy: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving,regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.
Sorry, sometimes my puns just stink.
Doh! Sorry again.
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
Blindness and deafness causing nerve damage? I thought they result from nerve damage, at least in part.
We are the music makers. We are the dreamers of the dreams.
I hear the main side effect is that everything feels like the smell of chicken.
I've fallen and I can't get up...
...oh, wait. I guess I can get up.
Nevermind.
In all seriousness, I like how the doctor quoted said that this won't be the cure requested since it won't make as much money as a drug-based cure would. For me - and my head-injured brother-in-law - it would be great to see such research come to fruition.
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
... too bad Michael Jackson lost his chance to use this technology years ago...
... elipses...
Hooray! Maybe some day Christopher Reeve will walk again!
And suddenly my 1+ inch nose becomes the most desired part of my body!
If I clone myself, can I call it a thread?
If a girl winks to us, can I call it a race condition?
Now if your friendly neighborhood LSD junkie says he can smell the pretty colors or sniff the awesome music, he may actually mean it.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
I don't think this technique (alone) could help with CNS injuries. From what I remember ( I did a prelim exam on nerve regeneration during graduate school) the CNS is immunosuppressed. That means that macrophages cannot enter the site of trauma to clear away debris from dead or damaged cells. This debris has been shown to INHIBIT nerve growth/regrowth. This limitation is not really there in PNS damage. If the "nose technique" is coupled with something to remove the debris (or to LOCALLY allow macrophages back into the vicinity of the trauma) then it might be successful. I for one think this is excellent work with some tremendous potential.
So the people that picked there nose, rubbed it in the dirt and ate it for dessert were actually onto something. Who would've thought
You made me pull out the scale ( sitting on my desk ) and measure!
Measure what? My nose, you pervert! ( Added to prevent the obvious punchline. )
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
--as me dons the flame retardant pajamas output--
/.'ers think?
If scientists can find enough of the body's own "self repairing tissue" areas, (plus the stem cells available from umbilical cords, etc.) wouldn't it obviate the need for embryonic stem cell research with all of it's accompanying moral and ethical controversies?
What do the
...Open Source isn't the only answer -- but it's almost always a better value than the alternatives...
The most important aspect (if it works) is the reusability of one's own body parts. Along with "organ cloning" this kind of thinking and research is much more useful than the fights over cloning entire humans and stem cells. Those stem cells are not your own and while maybe offering intermediate health solutions, the ability to recycle our own organs will ultimately lead to the best of all worlds - no moral quagmires and lots of effective medicine.
"It also has the potential to heal other nerve injuries, such as those caused by stroke, blindness and deafness." hmmm...I know this is wrong. But how should one rewrite this sentence? "It also has the potential to heal other nerve injuries, such as those caused by stroke: blindness and deafness." "It also has the potential to heal other nerve injuries (such as those caused by stroke), blindness and deafness." "It also has the potential to heal blindness, deafness, and other nerve injuries (such as those caused by stroke)."
"Is that a spinal cord on your face or are you just happy to see me?"
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
there's some good booger jokes in here somewhere.
ôó
"The Guardian has an article on how nose cells may cure spinal injuries."
"Bedivere, tell me again how sheep's bladders may be used to prevent earthquakes."
OCD's acting up on me today, so I must point out: One cannot 'cure' an injury. You can cure a disease, you can cure yourself of an injury, but you cannot cure an injury... unless you intend to bring the injury back to health.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I welcome our snotty spined overlords.....
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
Now we will all have to guard our human horns even more. Fist the alians and now this.
It's not the size of your stack that matters, it's how you push and pop
Jackson didn't throw away his real nose. He made sure the doctors kept it for research like this.
Don't you remember those classic lines, "Cuz I'm thinkin' about nerve inj'ry/It don't matta if you deaf o' blind!"?
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
I totally read that as Norse Cells to Cure Spinal Injuries.
I guess it would be a very bad thing to be Scandinavian in that case.
The nose bone's connected to the back bone. The back bone's connected to the...
Perhaps Mr. Jackson's short nose is part of why he got acquitted of recent molestation charges, as a long nose is evidence of perjury in at least one well-known fairy tale world.
If you put nose cells all over the body, and they accidently get bumped, do your eyes get watery?
Cause that would suck.
Live forever, or die trying.
You can cure a disease, you can cure yourself of an injury, but you cannot cure an injury... unless you intend to bring the injury back to health.
So by "cure a disease" do you mean bring the disease back to health? Please don't get picky about colloquially overloaded terms used in a colloquial context.
Although the article doesn't mention it, this could be a big step ahead for people with diabetes who have developed diabetic neuropathy. I have heard people wish they were dead rather than deal with the painful, distracting, and life-altering side-effects of this affliction.
Being a Type 1 diabetic myself, this is one of the biggest concerns - second only to blindness - that I worry about on a regular basis. Personally, this gives me hope that even if we can't eliminate diabetes altogether, we can at least improve the quality of life for those that do have it and develop associated ailments.
How much longer until they start creating artificial cells in laboratories, you think? I give it 10 years at this point. Most people don't know how quickly the genetics research is progressing, but you can expect most of the major achievements to all come at once. Artificial, universal red blood cells should be pretty easy to create, nerve cells seems more custom but still doable. Creating an entire human being from scratch, now that will take some time!
.....net worth just tripled.
Your next sneeze may blow out half your discs.
My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
This is one of those "Why didn't I think of that" ideas. It facinated me as a kid how a matchstick sized bundle of nerves in charge of smell was able to renerate itself in about a month. Apparently even a strong sneeze can rip it up, but back it comes a few weeks later. I always wondered why these nerves could and other central nervous system parts. Looks like someone else decided "Who cares why? Nerves are nerves, lets use 'em."
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
So does this mean that if you have this procedure done and you are later caught blatantly picking your nose in public that you can just claim your new nerve cells were homesick? My nerves are fine, but sign me up anyway!
mmmm - good boogers
When you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness. So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.
It also has the potential to heal other nerve injuries, such as blindness, deafness, and those caused by stroke.
I'd like to see how they sell this technology... if it turns out the donor cells have to be extracted from boogers... :-)
Prolog rules
"The initial trial will be on people who have lost control of an arm due to the nerves being pulled from the spinal cord."
... and Steve Austin ...
Did anyone else read that and just go "ouch!" ?
Visions of drawn and quartering come to mind
- litz
Yes....It is.
So what's next? Smoking, drinking and deep fat are good for you? The Orgasmatron? Genetically engineered vegetables and chickens as big as houses?
Newscaster: Can Nose Cells Cure Spinal Injuries? Tune in tonight! ...Later that night
Newscaster: No.
The "contraversy" over ebryo stem cells has nothing to do with embryonic stem cell research. It is just a poor attempt to rehash the abortion debate. The idea being that abortion is evil. The right to lifers lost the abortion battle to the pro choicers a long time ago, so the right to lifers started to try to fight abortion through the slippery slope.
If embryonic stem cell research stopped tomorrow, the right to lifers would just move to some other abortion related issue, and create a "contraversy".
Aaatishoooooooooh!
Scott McNealy to Michael: "Suck my Sun!" Michael Dell to Scott : "Lick my Dell!"
but
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
No, It's not. My nerve is severed at the wrist.
"I have been patient. I didn't jump in the dark. I have grown through the research all these years. It was in 1985 I discovered the cells. It has taken 20 years before I felt we had the technology to apply this to people. After spending this amount of time developing it, I'm not in a hurry." "If it is proved, I think there will be so much publicity we will be lucky to stay in the field. It will be like a tidal wave. But the only race I'm in is the human race." At the beginning of the year, when he and his team moved from the national institute for medical research in the US to set up the UCL spinal repair unit, he predicted the first attempts in humans would not take place for two to three years. "I was wrong. Isn't that nice?" he said. Alright, I like this guy!
"To pass through the jungle; silence, courtesy, ferocity, as the occasion demands." -- Kamau, "Proper Passage"
What your teachers meant, was that white blood cells don't *normally* cross the brain/blood barrier and enter the CNS.
- That's the way herpes and zona hides : the virus stays dormant in neurons.
but
When there's an infection, like an encephalitis, some white blood cells (like lymphoncytes), may cross the barrier to come and clean up the disease.
In case of CNS damage, like a stroke, white blood cells do cross the brain barrier to come and try to clean up the mess.
The remaining mess is only part of the problem.
Another part, which isn't adressed by this nose-method (and that's why they say that it won't work with old and heavy spinal damages) is the scar : fibroblast come and refill the damaged hole with non-nervouse "useless" fibrotic material.
Another part of the problem is the inhibition of regrowth :
In PNS the supporting cells (schwan) try to help and encourage regrowth by helping cleaning the path and lining and guiding.
In CNS the glial cells try to close and isolate the damaged region (trying to re-create the broken barrier ?).
That's why they are first trying to solve small-scale problems like thorn nerve roots (more a "inhibition of regrowth" problem).
There are several way to try to fix this :
- One way is to try to stop the inhibition. Some researcher showed in a conference that using a few drugs (include eostrogen as far as I remember) they stoped this inhibition and encouraged the regrowth. Mice with (surgical and therefor "clean" scar-less) spinal section were able to walk again.
This is the "find a drug and patent it" method that the authors of this article are criticizing, but which is favored by private companies (because of the money and possible return on investments).
This reaserchers method is different : in the nose (which like the eye is CNS system, despite the fact we call it olphactive and optical "nerves") the nerves seem to be able to regrow (no inhibition to regrowth, despite being in the CNS). And he has (successfuly tried) to transplant such cell to other sites of injury (small scale, no scar involved) and obtain same uninhibited regrowth.
(this research is only likely to be seen in an university).
Note:
I have a master in medecine so I can give you these extra infromation. But on the other hand, that's not my specialty, and is only simplified from what i remember. Is there any neurologist on slashdot who could give a better explanation ?
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Howard Stern stands to make a lot of money from this...
... but as an anosmic, I'm wondering if they can use spinal cells to cure nose injuries.
It might work, but you'll get a runny spine everytime you get a cold.
Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
Once doctors get this particular trick completely worked out, and hopefully collect their nobel prize, here's what I hope they do next:
1. Figure out how to clone new body parts, to replace those which are severed or lost, and forever banish the horror inspired in us by Lorena Bobbit (yes, I know they sewed it back on and it works, but what if she'd done something else, like gobbled it down? It's not like she was particularly sane at the time).
2. Figure out how to cure and/or immunize against aids and herpes, which will significantly increase the amount of joy in the world.
3. Create the "bowel" gun (makes you crap your drawers when shot) from Transmetropolitan, with it's various settings like "watery" and "prolapse".
4. Create an electrical gizmo which makes all penises adjustable. Although current technology exists to turn all penii into vibrators, a big adjustment dial would make things more interesting. I envision settings like "Whopper", "Excalibur", "Minuteman Missle", and "Saturn V" for starters.
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
Penii!?
Denham's Dentrifice, Denham's Dentrifice, Denham's Dandy Dental Dentrifice, Denham's Dentrifice Dentrifice Dentrifice.
Yes, but will spinal cells cure nose injuries?
larry
2. Insert head.
3. ???
4. Cure!!!
(Note: IANAND--I am not a nose doctor.)
I'm familiar with research going on at a Canadian University for more than a decade that involves the rebuilding of spinal nerve cells with the use of an injectable drug. I first learned about it around 3 years ago. Rats whose spines were severed completely were able to recover completely, moving about like normal, healthy rats within weeks.
Recently a research partnership was created with a US University with a primate lab, and those tests are ongoing as we speak. I'm sure the parties involved would prefer it if they got to make any announcements, so feel free to treat this post as pure, unsubstantiated rumor.
The drug presently must be administered within a few hours of injury to be effective. However, because of that, it's expected that there will be human trials with first responders within a very short time, provided the monkey trials have no surprises.
If I wasn't familiar with this research and it's results, I probably would have been more skeptical about this story from the UK, since nerve tissue damage has been, till now, notoriously difficult to repair.
Dare I say it. Noses. I even grep'd to see if anyone had already said it. You are all really slacking.
-50 point to slashdot-house!
Cowboy Neal had better catch the snitch else fark-house might win the quidditch cup!
It must be Thursday, I could never handle Thursdays.
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The millions of skin cells are only an almost negligible fraction of that individuals total amount of cells, and they are easily replaced.
The single blob of protoplasm is 100% of that individuals cells.
No need to be brain-dead or fundi to know that difference, just some very basic biology.
This type of treatment was the subject of a recent BBC Horizon programme:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon /doctor.shtml
It's about a Chinese doctor who uses cadaveric cells (from aborted foetuses) to treat people - in the programme he is shunned by western doctors for not running the treatment regime as a proper medical trial, and thus not being able to prove his treatment is doing anything.
Well worth seeing, if you can get hold of a copy by some means!
It has been tried on 2 women confined to wheelchairs (spinal cord injuries) and it has produced some promising results of renewed sensation and neuromuscular "flutters". A second trial of stem cells derived from bone marrow were used on a damaged heart with a near 100% recovery of a heart that was 75% inoperative after being impaled by a board.
I have had to treat some Lyme/Boreliosis diseases, so I have some practical knowledge about them. So :
- Yes. The spirochetes are sensitive to antibiotics. Usually tetracycline are used, they are sensitive to penicillins too. (normally we presribe 2-3 weeks of tetracycline antibiotics). So mabe you had luck and managed to kill 2 birds with one stone.
- NEVER try to medicate yourself alone. You had luck this time, but one should always go to see the doctor even if he has antibiotics for another disease. Unadapted antibiotics can lead to awfull consequences (like creating drug-resisting bacteria).
- A signle rush of adrenaline has almost no effect on the immune system. Immune system *may* benefit from good (= suffisent. Not "above normal value") oxygenation during *the whole* illness.
- But chronic stress doesn't help at all, it doesn't lead to permanent increased oxygen levels, it leads to corticoids secretion which have immuno-*supressing* effect.
- So overall effect of stress to illness : between "no" and "bad" effects, depending of duration
- If your doctor asserts using correct lab checks that your clean, then there's a high probability that indeed you managed to kill the disease using your own immune system + help of antibiotics for your sinusitis. Other wise, if you only think you get rid of it because there's no symptoms there's still a chance that the bacteria is staying hiding dormant and one may develop symptoms months to years after the initial infection (but in your specific case, 20 years later, I *think* we may safely assume that you *did* get rid of the disease, otherwise the dormant should have shown up by now).
- As far as I've read : the Borelia burgdoferri spirochetes causing boreliosis (Lyme's disease) don't mutate that much, so your antibodies should still be valid against further infections. BUT there are a few different subspecies and you are only 100% sure immune against the one that infected you. The other subspecies will very probably need different antibodies.
- There exist vaccins against lyme disease. One wich works against a single subspecie and there's some research done to develop multi-target vaccines (but I don't know the current state of research. Last summer when I worked and encountered boreliosis, the multi-target one wasn't yet used in our clinic.)
In short : You're one lucky mother fucker. Next time, ask medical advice, just to be on the safe side.
Note: I have treated boreliosis, plus I've worked in infectiology research labs, so I'm rather confident in what I'm saying. But I'm a humnan being, I *can* be wrong.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]