Nine people regained leg mobility thanks to spinal cord stimulation. The shocking discovery was published in the journal Nature and marks a milestone in how paralyzed people could regain lost mobility for several reasons.
Neuroscientists have identified nerve cells that help people with paralyzes walk again, opening up the possibility of applying specific therapies that could benefit more people with spinal cord injuries.
In the publication, Grégoire Courtine’s team found that electrical stimulation of the spinal cord is effective in improving gait recovery in people with paralysis, although the mechanism behind this treatment is not yet fully understood.
In 2018, neuroscientist Grégoire Courtine of the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne and colleagues showed that delivering electrical impulses to those nerves in the lower spine, a technique known as epidural electrical stimulation (EES), could, when combined with a intensive training, having people with this type of spinal cord injury walk again.
At that time, all three participants in a trial went from having severe or complete motor paralysis and minimal sensation in their legs to being able to take steps on their own, or with a walker or crutches. Two other teams showed similar results in the same year.
Now, the group reports in Nature that nine participants in the same trial – three of them completely paralyzed and without feeling in their legs – regained the ability to walk after a combined EES workout delivered by devices implanted in the spine.
Five months into the trial, all participants were able to support their own weight and take steps, using a walker to stabilize themselves.
Four no longer need the EES on to walk. This prolonged recovery suggests that stimulation triggers remodeling of spinal neurons to restart the locomotion network.
“The hope it gives to people with spinal cord injuries is incredible,” says Marc Ruitenberg, a neurologist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, who studies spinal cord injuries.
Source: Clarin
