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Biotech Technology

Nose Cells to Cure Spinal Injuries? 168

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the nothing-to-sneeze-at dept.
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."
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Nose Cells to Cure Spinal Injuries? More

Nose Cells to Cure Spinal Injuries?

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  • I'd like to have feeling in the back of my thumb! and if it doesn't work... oh well, no big loss. Not like messing with someone's spinal cord.
  • 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."

  • Apologies in advance... (Score:4, Funny)

    by nganju ( 821034 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @04:08PM (#14150477)
    ... but this smells like a scam to me.

    Sorry, sometimes my puns just stink.
    Doh! Sorry again.

  • Blindness and deafness causing nerve damage? I thought they result from nerve damage, at least in part.
    • Noses curing spinal injuries, blindness and deafness causing nerve damage...I just dont know what to beleive anymore!

    • Re:Huh? (Score:3, Informative)

      by jim_v2000 ( 818799 )
      It's poorly worded...

      "It also has the potential to heal other nerve injuries, such as those caused by stroke, blindness and deafness."

      meaning:

      Nerve Injuries, such as:
      *Those caused by stroke
      *Blindness
      *Deafness
    • Blindness and deafness causing nerve damage? I thought they result from nerve damage, at least in part.

      If you are blind, do you have stairs in your house?

      If you are deaf, do you have to walk across a busy street to get to work?

      There is your nerve damage.

  • Stink blossoms (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @04:10PM (#14150499)
    I hear the main side effect is that everything feels like the smell of chicken.
  • Help!

    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.

    • 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.

      You mean they actually research drug-based cures? Seems to me that the real money is in drug based treatments. Nothing says love like a life long prescription for Prozac. Actually, they only want you taking a drug until the patent runs out. Then they come up with an amazing new long-term treatment that you can't get in generic form.

      -matthew

  • Too bad... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Reverend Darkness ( 826202 ) <reverend.darkness@gmail.com> on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @04:11PM (#14150518) Homepage Journal
    ... too bad Michael Jackson lost his chance to use this technology years ago...

  • You will believe a man can walk (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Hooray! Maybe some day Christopher Reeve will walk again!
    • Except, he won't be repeating :
      Bwaaaaaiiiiinnnnnnn....... Bwaaaaaiiiiinnnnnnn....... Bwaaaaaiiiiinnnnnnn.......

      but
      Nooooseeeee..... Nooooseeeee..... Nooooseeeee.....

  • Huuuge! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Volanin ( 935080 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @04:14PM (#14150549)
    And suddenly my 1+ inch nose becomes the most desired part of my body!

  • Drugs are bad mmkay... (Score:4, Funny)

    by GillBates0 ( 664202 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @04:14PM (#14150552) Homepage Journal
    heal other nerve injuries, such as those caused by stroke, blindness and deafness.

    Now if your friendly neighborhood LSD junkie says he can smell the pretty colors or sniff the awesome music, he may actually mean it.

  • CNS injuries (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Brown Eggs ( 650559 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @04:17PM (#14150583)
    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.

    • Re:CNS injuries (Score:3, Informative)

      by the_humeister ( 922869 )
      That is not entirely correct. This is basic pathology: injury attracts inflammatory cells including neutrophils and eventually macrophages, which clean up the debris. I see this all the time in the CNS on autopsied patients where cerebral infarcts contain neutrophils, macrophages, or cystic areas with gliosis depending on how old the infarct is.
    • This thread is mostly over my head, but wouldn't this be a good place to use maggots to clear out the necrotic tissue?

    • More complete version. (Score:5, Informative)

      by DrYak ( 748999 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @06:50PM (#14152130) Homepage
      What your teachers meant, was that white blood cells don't *normally* cross the brain/blood [wikipedia.org] barrier and enter the CNS.
      - That's the way herpes [wikipedia.org] 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 ?

      • They're not just weird nose cells with an odd re-growth potential: They're stem cells. In adults, stem cells are found in fair supply within the nose.

        There's a possibility of more effective treatment if they could use embryonic stem cells; unfortunately, they aren't readily available.

        I'm no expert, but I did stay at a holiday inn last night and they had a Discovery special about this.
    • A recent article about a Korean experiment which used mice to successfully rebuild CNS (spinal cord) injury covered this. I think I posted it to /. myself. Anyway the scar tissue etc. has to be cleared away first with surgery etc. anyway this seems (to a non doctor) trivial. Why do you feel qualified to doubt a guy who has been working on this problem for decades and successfully proven it in animals?
  • 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

  • Funny comments, but my question is this (Score:4, Insightful)

    by CodeShark ( 17400 ) <ellsworthpc AT yahoo DOT com> on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @04:19PM (#14150607) Homepage
    --as me dons the flame retardant pajamas output--

    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 /.'ers think?

    • Re:Funny comments, but my question is this (Score:5, Insightful)

      by xtal ( 49134 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @04:30PM (#14150733)

      wouldn't it obviate the need for embryonic stem cell research with all of it's accompanying moral and ethical controversies?


      More interesting will be what will happen when China, Russia and other countries who are advancing stem cell research develop cures and better treatments than are available in North America. How many people would change their tune, if, for example, a cure for prostate cancer or heart disease came out of such research?
      • Uhm... people will start flying *there* to get cured instead of to the USA? What do I win?

      • Re:Funny comments, but my question is this (Score:5, Interesting)

        by paranode ( 671698 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @05:28PM (#14151404)
        Such blasphemy! No cure at all is better than Satan's cure!!



        Recently a successful vaccine for cervical cancer was developed, but guess which radical fundamentalist population group was against it because they thought that vaccinating teenage girls against cervical cancer would promote promiscuity? These types are just insane...

        • Re:Funny comments, but my question is this (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Labelling the opponents of embrionic stem cell research as crazy religious fanatics is an unfair method of dismissing the broader group of people who have a serious moral issue with killing unborn children. Maybe you're happy to regard embryos as pre-human, but not everyone can satisfy their consciences that way, religious or no.

          Progress with adult stem cell research looks so promising and has actually produced much better results than embrionic stem cell research to date (this article is but one example).
          • >Progress with adult stem cell research looks so promising and has actually
            >produced much better results than embrionic stem cell research to date (this
            >article is but one example). This somewhat weakens the argument for the necessity
            >of continuing to pursue embryonic stem cell research. Perhaps that's why we don't
            >hear about it much?

            Given how many legal hurdles and barriers embryonic stem cell research keeps getting, it's hardly surprising it's not progressing really fast. You can'
      • Isn't it odd, that despite the billions invested, there have been no cures from embryonic stem cell research, but only from adult stem cell research? The only reason embryonic research is still pursued is because there's no money in adult stem cell research. Adults already have the cells necessary for successful cures, and don't need to buy, clone, or farm embryos -- which kills defenseless humans. Like the rest of the abortion industry and the contraception and pornography industries which feed it, the
    • 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".

  • One's own parts are the best... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Aesiq ( 190001 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @04:21PM (#14150626) Homepage
    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.

  • Blindness and Deafness lead to Nerve Injuries! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Fractl ( 931587 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @04:21PM (#14150631)
    "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)."
  • there's some good booger jokes in here somewhere.

  • Oh yeah? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Red Flayer ( 890720 )
    "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.

  • I welcome our snotty spined overlords.....

  • damn (Score:1)

    by doodzed ( 35795 )
    Now we will all have to guard our human horns even more. Fist the alians and now this.

  • Hmmm (Score:1)

    by Corbie ( 685225 )
    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...
  • If you put nose cells all over the body, and they accidently get bumped, do your eyes get watery?

    Cause that would suck.
    • If you put nose cells all over the body, you're stupid and have only yourself to blame. It'd be cool to sneeze with your groin, though.

  • Diabetes? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by foobaric ( 828876 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @04:32PM (#14150748)
    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.
    • I think we'll see the an easier cure for Type I diabetes within the next 50 years. We can already do pancreas transplants and islet cells transplants. Now we just need to figure out how to prevent the production of auto-antibodies against the islet cells...
    • I believe the reknowned scientist Kevin Trudeau has already found the cure for diabetes (along with cancer, and every other affliction ever).
    • Well blindness might not be one you have to worry about for too much longer either ;)

      check this annoucement [egoli.com.au]
  • 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.

  • Regenerating neural tissue (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jbeaupre ( 752124 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @04:44PM (#14150879)
    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."
  • 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!
  • So what's next? Smoking, drinking and deep fat are good for you? The Orgasmatron? Genetically engineered vegetables and chickens as big as houses?
    • The orgasmatron does exist...it's a think you use to rub your head. There's 10-15 curved rods connected to a handle you can use to rub your head with. It's orgasmically pleasing (tm)

  • Tune in later tonight! (Score:3, Funny)

    by cparisi ( 136611 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @05:27PM (#14151395) Homepage
    Newscaster: Can Nose Cells Cure Spinal Injuries? Tune in tonight! ...Later that night

    Newscaster: No.
  • 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
  • 1. Locate ass.

    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
  • 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.

    please type the word in this image: overflow
    random letters - if you are visually impaired, please email us at pater@slashdot.org

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