Scientists Develop Paralysis-Fixing Spinal Cord Implants
The implants use transformed tissue that replicates spinal cord development in embryos. Separately, reports say that patients suffering depression can respond well to transcranial magnetic stimulation. Eli Lilly, drug development at Merck, and future cancer therapies are also in the news.
Press Association:
Scientists Create Spinal Cord Implants That Could Allow Paralyzed People To Walk
A scientific breakthrough may enable paralysed people to walk again as researchers have created human spinal cord implants in a world first. The 3D implants, made using human cells, had an 80% success rate in restoring the ability to walk in paralysed mice in the laboratory, researchers said. Tissue samples from patients are transformed into functioning spinal cord implants through a process that mimics the development of the spinal cord in human embryos. Over the next few years the scientists plan to be able to create personalised implants to repair tissue damaged from injury, and without the risk of rejection by the body. (2/7)
In other research news —
NPR:
Depression Responds To Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Treatment In Studies
At the end of the first day, an unfamiliar calm settled over Emma. Even when her partner picked her up to drive home, she stayed relaxed. "I'm usually hysterical," she said. "All the time I'm grabbing things. I'm yelling, you know, 'Did you see those lights?' And while I rode home that first night I just looked out the window and I enjoyed the ride." The remedy was a new type of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) called "Stanford neuromodulation therapy." By adding imaging technology to the treatment and upping the dose of rTMS, scientists have developed an approach that's more effective and works more than eight times faster than the current approved treatment. (McClurg, 2/6)
In pharmaceutical and biotech developments —
Stat:
FDA Regulator Gives Cool Reception To Drug Lilly Licensed From Chinese Firm
A Food and Drug Administration meeting scheduled for next week to review a Chinese-developed cancer immunotherapy is likely to be challenging for drug sponsor Eli Lilly, following skeptical comments published Friday evening by the U.S. agency’s top cancer regulator. Writing in Lancet Oncology, the FDA’s Richard Pazdur described imported cancer drug data from China as a “bridge over troubled waters.” As an example, Pazdur singled out sintilimab, an anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor developed by the China-based drugmaker Innovent and licensed to Lilly. (Feuerstein, 2/4)
Stat:
The Quest For The Small Molecule Holy Grail With Merck's Head Of R&D
Scientists at Merck are staring down a drug development puzzle. One that has to do with a mutated protein called PCSK9, which is associated with the production of harmful levels of cholesterol in the blood. The PCSK9 protein is actually relatively easy to target a drug against. Two cholesterol-lowering monoclonal antibodies that work by blocking PCSK9 were approved back in 2015. Last December, the FDA approved a third treatment that works by interfering with the RNA that precedes PCSK9. But all of these medicines are administered by regular injections. The puzzle that Merck scientists are trying to solve is how to design a more convenient pill that can lower cholesterol by also blocking PCSK9. (Tirrell, Feuerstein and Garde, 2/7)
Axios:
The “Next Frontier” For Pioneering Cancer Therapies
Cancer treatments that modify a patient's immune cells to attack cancer cells are being re-engineered to try to treat more cancers in more people. CAR-T immunotherapies have been successful in treating certain types of blood cancers in some people. But they struggle against solid tumors, which make up about 90% of cancers in adults. "Solid tumors are the next frontier," says J. Joseph Melenhorst, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania who develops CAR-T therapies. (Snyder, 2/6)
