New Treatment Helps Cure Spinal Injuries 193
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."
Safe? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Safe? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Safe? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Safe? (Score:1)
Re:Safe? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Safe? (Score:3, Insightful)
Phil
Re:Safe? (Score:3, Funny)
I wasn't aware that PEG was safe.
It isn't! I knew this one guy who had a hot girlfriend. And she was really into pegging. My buddy was squimish about it, of course, but she was treatening to dump him and find someone who'd let her do it. Anyhow, she just rode him silly. He was so torn up that he had to go to the Emergency Room that night and tell them what happened! Man, talk about embarrasing! I would never let my girlfriend ... what? Oh. I thought we were talking about something else. Nevermi
Re:Safe? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Safe? (Score:2)
Re:Safe? (Score:3, Informative)
First of all -- tangentially -- 'salt' is not chlorine and sodium. There are many different types of salt, including CaCl2 (used often on sidewalks and roads because it dissolves to three ions as opposed to the two of NaCl which lowers the freezing point even more, thus being more effective in de-icing).
Secondly, NaCl (standard table salt in the United States) is not composed of two 'chemicals'. Its molecular composition is that of two elements. I realize the distinction is minor but you are
Re: Philosopher King (Score:2)
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).
Re: Philosopher King (Score:2)
Re:Safe? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Safe? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Safe? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Safe? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Safe? (Score:5, Informative)
As they say, the dose makes the poison. Apparently they've got a working concentration of PEG that can be IV injected that is sufficiently low to not harm healthy tissues--the effect is confined to the location of spinal trauma.
Actually, I'd strongly recommend looking at the linked article. As with making hybridomas, the scientists here are deliberately fusing cells together. In this case, the idea is that even if a cell is fatally damaged, fusing it to an adjacent healthy nerve cell can allow it to survive.
Apparently, the PEG also mucks with signalling so that the death of a few cells doesn't lead to apoptosis (cell death) in nearby structures. That's a great bonus. Altogether a very neat result. I'm kind of surprised that this works, actually--I would have expected a lot of fusions between axons and Schwann cells, or something equally useless...very interesting.
Re:Safe? (Score:2)
Re:Safe? (Score:2)
Yes, it increases the uptake of DNA by competent cells. Competence can be induced artificially by the methods that you mention, or it can occur naturally (eubacteria snag bits of DNA from each other when environmental conditions prompt it and it seems to be a succesful evolutionary strategy). PEG increases
Re:Safe? (Score:2)
Wow! (Score:1)
Re:Wow! (Score:2)
Yes, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Too late for the last election but ...... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Too late for the last election but ...... (Score:2, Troll)
Oh really? (Score:2)
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 [google.com]
Or just type "embryonic stem cells" here [nih.gov] and be ready for some surprises.
Bummer... (Score:1, Troll)
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 [yahoo.com].
Re:Yes, but... (Score:2, Funny)
Could someone inject Bush's brain (Score:1)
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.
Flamebait and Offtopic (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
Re:Flamebait and Offtopic (Score:2)
Re:Flamebait and Offtopic (Score:2)
No, its just michael. This is normal for him.
Re:Flamebait and Offtopic (Score:2)
No surprise that Eric ended up a killer. His mother dumped "her love" probably within milliseconds after he met a misfortune...
Uh, what? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
even more offtopic... (Score:1)
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.
Re:I agree entirely... (Score:2, Insightful)
obligatory Monty Python Reference (Score:2)
Adult or Embryonic?
I... I don't know.
Re: (Score:2)
I read 20 years ago... (Score:5, Interesting)
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?
Bingo (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:I read 20 years ago... (Score:5, Interesting)
DMSO takes stuff right through the skin. You can dissolve asprin in dmso and apply it topically, and that asprin will go right to where you need it. I did that for a while, but stopped when I realized I couldn't tell the difference between DMSO+Asprin and straight DMSO.
I love DMSO, and in fact am about to break out a new bottle, 'cause I've spent too much time on this stupid laptop computer, and my shoulders and forearms are all inflammed. Bathe/dry off/apply/wait 10 minutes/rinse.
Everyone who's considering using DMSO thing should get a book on the topic, 'cause it's possible to do some stupid stuff. I know a guy who soaked a cotton pad in DMSO and put it on his foot with an ace bandage. His nerves were firing painfully for days...
Re:I read 20 years ago... (Score:1, Informative)
Everyone who's considering using DMSO thing should get a book on the topic, 'cause it's possible to do some stupid stuff. I know a guy who soaked a cotton pad in DMSO and put it on his foot with an ace bandage. His nerves were firing painfully for days... :).
True enough. DMSO was originally used as an engine degreaser. It's a pretty powerful chemical solvent. Now, a lot of people are rubbing it all over themselves because they saw Dr. Weil chuckling on TV about how it's some kind of miracle cure. Rea
DMSO not so great it seems (Score:5, Informative)
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
Why was this modded up? (Score:1)
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
yeah but can it do anything useful? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I read 20 years ago... (Score:2)
Re:I read 20 years ago... (Score:2)
Quick note of caution --
DMSO has been proven to cause cataracts in animal studies. Though this hasn't been observed in humans (yet), it's worth considering before you start swabbing yourself with random industrial solvents. It also gives you really bad garlic breath, so if you're one of the /. minority that has a spouse or significant other, you might want to stick with asprin.
DMSO and veterinary medicine (Score:2, Informative)
cheap? not when it's made by glaxosmithklinemerk (Score:3, Interesting)
kind of like how superglue can close wounds from razor sharp objects, but hostipal grade liquid bandage probably costs about $200/tube.
Re:cheap? not when it's made by glaxosmithklinemer (Score:4, Informative)
So what your saying is (Score:1)
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.
Re:So what your saying is (Score:2)
Super-glue generally isn't used on small cuts that don't require medical intervention, and if it were, the cut was nowhere near deep enough for an infecton to be much of an issue.
In a clinical setting, however, the medical grade stuff is used on open/surgical wounds -- "cuts" that if infected could cause a person to lose a limb or their life.
(Would you seriously want non-sterilized instrumen
Re:So what your saying is (Score:2)
Re:cheap? not when it's made by glaxosmithklinemer (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:cheap? not when it's made by glaxosmithklinemer (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:cheap? not when it's made by glaxosmithklinemer (Score:3, Informative)
Re:cheap? not when it's made by glaxosmithklinemer (Score:3, Informative)
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.
alright (Score:1)
Re:alright (Score:2)
with advancement comes obsolescence... (Score:5, Funny)
PEG (Score:1)
Re:PEG (Score:1, Informative)
Re:PEG (Score:1)
While it might work, the difference likely wouldn't be noticeable in most people, since they weren't used in the first place.
Another recent story on recovery from nerve damage (Score:3, Interesting)
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."
Young Scientists (Score:1)
Re:Young Scientists (Score:2)
wiener dogs make another contribution to mankind.. (Score:4, Funny)
(I'd wish they had tried this on my Roxy when she blew a disk a couple of years back.)
Dogs (Score:2)
Re:Dogs (Score:2)
Re:Dogs (Score:1)
Re:Dogs (Score:2)
I took a kitten with an eye infection (of the rare, hard to treat, and sight-threatening kind) to the vet and the kitty ended up being the first in the state to be cured with a new drug they were testing. It had been animal-tested (in rabbits), approved for humans, proved in humans, and was making full-circle to being tested in various other species.
Polyethylene glycol is used for... (Score:5, Informative)
Material Safety Data Sheet [rpi.edu]
We have stem cell research (Score:1)
Re:We have stem cell research (Score:2, Informative)
This is what happens when I read /. at midnight (Score:5, Funny)
Times have changed (Score:4, Funny)
A little discussion (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:A little discussion (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:A little discussion (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, the solubility depends a lot on the molecular weight of their PEG. I've done a bit of work in drug development, and one of the techniques used to improve the solubility of certain very nonpolar drug candidates is to stick a nice, soluble PEG group on. As you say, it's well suited to work in aqueous systems--like blood.
That's a neat theory. I doub
Hospital? EMT's in the field (Score:2, Insightful)
Head Injury Too? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Go To The Source (Score:5, Informative)
Here is the abstract [liebertonline.com] 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."
Re:Go To The Source (Score:2)
The Slashdot title is wrong when it says this treatment "helps cure". There's very little evidence that the effect will be reproducible. There was no control group in the study, so the possibility is very great that a selection bias was entir
I wonder if this could be used to treat (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I wonder if this could be used to treat (Score:2)
153 posts... (Score:2)
Just to get it straight (Score:3, Informative)
PEG used in medicine already, preserving cells (Score:2)
It's not much of a leap to go from this to trying in in live animals.
Benefits (Score:2)
I didn't know that there were any benefits to a spinal injury...
If Stem Cell Research is So Great (Score:2)
The entire
Re:What not Stem Cells? Have we been lied to? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:cool, but not quite... (Score:2)
That said, I agree. This is pretty cool and could give benefits soon and cheap. I wonder how long it will be before this treatment becomes common (assuming it's found safe, etc.)
Re:cool, but not quite... (Score:2)
Re:cool, but not quite... (Score:2)
Not that you need to use embryonic stem cells; there are other sources that work just as well, like cord stem cells, that don't have all these negative religious connotations.
As for society 'giving a pass' on various forms of sanctioned killings, it was society that decided that killing isn't allowed in the first place. Same thing with the police impounding your car; society sanctions th
Re:In other news... (Score:2)
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.
Re:Stem Cell Research (Score:3, Insightful)
This is insightful? (Score:2, Informative)
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 t
Re:Stem Cell Research (Score:2)
Re:Stem Cell Research (Score:2)
That, of course, is a matter of opinion. Your opinion. And
Your comment is somewhat, well, conflicted. You say we need stem cell research, yet in the same sentence you say we don
Re:Benefits? (Score:2)