HEALTH-PARALYSED/RAISMAN INTERVIEW Transplant treatment that helped paralysed man walk is on the 'verge of a miracle', says lead scientist

Record ID: 450928

  • Title: HEALTH-PARALYSED/RAISMAN INTERVIEW Transplant treatment that helped paralysed man walk is on the 'verge of a miracle', says lead scientist
  • Date: 21st October 2014
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (OCTOBER 21, 2014) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON'S INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGY GEOFFREY RAISMAN, SAYING: "We've established the principle that at least in one patient it was possible for nerve fibres to grow back across an injury. It's never been done. And when they grew back to restore movement and sensation." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON'S INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGY GEOFFREY RAISMAN, SAYING: "To tell the truth I do feel that we are standing on the verge of a miracle, although it's not of my making. But I've been part of something which is, I think, something of enormous importance." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON'S INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGY GEOFFREY RAISMAN, SAYING: "I believe that this will be the basis of repair in the future. There's a great deal to be done to get from this rather localised, simple injury to the larger injuries that most people have. The procedure that the surgeon used were the first try at them. There are many ways they could be improved, we think. All this has to be developed. It's as though we are standing at the bottom of a big steep mountain and we're going to try and climb up it."
  • Embargoed: 5th November 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABBFB05JQTTF762E8H8KV09KQP
  • Story Text: A Bulgarian man who was paralysed from the chest down in a knife attack can now walk with the aid of a frame after receiving pioneering transplant treatment using cells from his nose.
    The technique, described as a breakthrough by a study in the journal Cell Transplantation, involved transplanting what are known as olfactory ensheathing cells into the patient's spinal cord and constructing a "nerve bridge" between two stumps of the damaged spinal column.
    Geoffrey Raisman, a professor at University College London's (UCL) institute of neurology, who led the research, said the procedure was a breakthrough which would lead to a historic change in the outlook for people disabled by spinal cord injuries.
    "We've established the principle that at least in one patient it was possible for nerve fibres to grow back across an injury. It's never been done. And when they grew back to restore movement and sensation," Raisman told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday (October 21).
    "To tell the truth I do feel that we are standing on the verge of a miracle, although it's not of my making. But I've been part of something which is I think something of enormous importance," he added.
    The 38-year-old patient, Darek Fidyka, was paralysed after suffering stab wounds to his back in 2010. Following 19 months of treatment, he has recovered some voluntary movement and some sensation in his legs, his medics said.
    "I believe that this will be the basis of repair in the future. There's a great deal to be done to get from this rather localised, simple injury to the larger injuries that most people have. The procedure that the surgeon used were the first try at them. There are many ways they could be improved, we think. All this has to be developed. It's as though we are standing at the bottom of a big steep mountain and we're going to try and climb up it," said Raisman.
    The Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation (NSIF), a British-based charity which part-funded the research, said in statement that Fidyka was continuing to improve more than predicted, and was now able to drive and live more independently.
    But another expert, Professor Simone di Giovanni, Chair in Restorative Neuroscience at Imperial College, London, added a note of caution.
    "From one case it is difficult to argue that the cell transplantation is causative of recovery observed because this patient's spinal cord injury may potentially (have) found a way to slowly recover because of the potential spare tissue there was in this spinal cord injury patient," he said.
    "This strategy, this therapy has been tried for many years in animals including human primates, like monkeys, and there is no consensus that this therapy is effective and also no absolute consensus that this therapy is going to be absolutely safe. So I would tell patients that they should take part in potential studies only if the study is properly controlled and is properly regulated by the competent authorities," added Giovanni.
    Raisman, a UCL spinal injury specialist, worked with surgeons at Wroclaw University Hospital in Poland to remove one of Fidyka's olfactory bulbs, which give people their sense of smell, and transplant his olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) and olfactory nerve fibroblasts (ONFs) into the damaged area.
    They used a nerve bridge constructed between the two stumps of the damage spinal column, they said in the study.
    OECs are a type of cell found in both the peripheral and central nervous system. Together with ONFs, they make bundles of nerve fibres that run from the nasal mucosa to the olfactory bulb, where the sense of smell is located.
    When the nerve fibres that carry smell become damaged, they are replaced by new nerve fibres which re-enter the olfactory bulbs, the researchers explained in their study.
    OECs help this process by re-opening the surface of the bulbs for the new nerve fibres to enter -- leading Raisman and his team to believe transplanting OECs into the damaged spinal cord could enable severed nerve fibres to re-grow.
    Raisman and his team now plan to repeat the treatment technique in between three and five patients over the next three to five years.
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