Nov 16 1998 - By HELEN CARTER
SCIENTISTS in Melbourne and Queensland may have made a breakthrough in the search for a paraplegia cure.
They have found the molecule which allows nerve fibres to connect from the brain to the spinal cord. These fibres conduct messages, enabling limb movement.
The molecule defines a pathway on which the fibres grow and guides them into the spinal cord.
In spinal injury patients with paraplegia or quadriplegia, the pathway is damaged.
This causes scar tissue like a wall that blocks messages from the brain, restricting limb function, movement and feeling.
The Australian researchers think they have found why the nerve fibres won't re-grow in spinal injury patients, but more tests are needed.
Their long-term hope is that injections of the molecules might reinforce the pathway and re-grow the spinal cord connection.
The head of the discovery team, Dr Perry Bartlett from Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, said the molecule EphA4 was part of a family of molecules in the nervous system.
Speaking on the eve of spinal cord injury awareness week which starts today, he said the team published its find two weeks ago in the prestigious US Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Dr Mirella Dotorri, from the institute, found mice bred without the molecule could not walk properly, had unco-ordinated movement in rear limbs and hopped.
She also found they had deficient numbers of nerve fibres in their spinal cords. Messages were sent from the brain but they got lost instead of going down the spine to tell legs to move.
Dr Bartlett said: "It's very exciting, it looks as though this molecule is important - it's the first molecule found which guides nerve fibres into the spinal column ... We're very confident this is a very important system."
The director of the Victorian Spinal Cord Service at the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre, Dr Doug Brown, said it could be one factor leading to restoration of function, movement and feeling. "It could be extremely important if proven outside abnormal mouse models," he said.
The work was a collaboration with a Queensland Institute of Medical Research team.
The Australasian Spinal Research Trust, which helped fund it, said 20,000 Australians receive spinal cord injuries, with six new injuries occurring every week.
To help the trust with funds, call 1800774625.
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