Do I want to know how they get mice with severe spinal cord injuries to test on? I'm guessing it's exactly what I think it is, but I'm wondering if there's another way that it happens.
‘Dancing molecules’ successfully repair severe spinal cord injuries
31–40 of 104 posts
Re: ‘Dancing molecules’ successfully repair severe spinal cord injuries
#32Do I want to know how they get mice with severe spinal cord injuries to test on? I'm guessing it's exactly what I think it is, but I'm wondering if there's another way that it happens.
I'm sorry you were downvoted for asking that. I think it's a fair issue to raise. Assuming the mice are intentionally injured to allow testing, it seems reasonable, to me, to question the ethics of that. Of course it's easy to say "they're just mice, who cares?" but it's not wrong to ask "they're living creatures as well, shouldn't we care?" I expect the response to be "it's justified given the benefits we derive for humans, based on this mouse based research", and probably most people would agree with that. But perhaps not everyone would.
Also consider the number of really scary books/movies out there rooted in the idea of "medical utilitarianism." For one example, this issue is addressed in a show called Biohackers that I just started watching. And even in real life, people have tried to justify a lot of really sketchy stuff over the years, in the name of "the greater good".
Re: ‘Dancing molecules’ successfully repair severe spinal cord injuries
#33Do I want to know how they get mice with severe spinal cord injuries to test on? I'm guessing it's exactly what I think it is, but I'm wondering if there's another way that it happens.
the player is instructed to attack the weak point for maximum damage
Re: ‘Dancing molecules’ successfully repair severe spinal cord injuries
#34Based on this stimulating Axon growth, it sounds like it might help to repair the damage caused by MS. That would be amazing news. Not a cure per se, but a way to actually treat symptoms rather than just surpressing. Worryingly, they mention a few neurodegenerative diseases but not MS.
BioNTech is working on a vaccine against MS that is supposed to untrain the immune system to no longer attack own tissue. It should at least slow progress of the disease and even seems to have allowed to reverse early damages in mice. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Re: ‘Dancing molecules’ successfully repair severe spinal cord injuries
#35Do I want to know how they get mice with severe spinal cord injuries to test on? I'm guessing it's exactly what I think it is, but I'm wondering if there's another way that it happens.
I'm sorry you were downvoted for asking that. I think it's a fair issue to raise. Assuming the mice are intentionally injured to allow testing, it seems reasonable, to me, to question the ethics of that. Of course it's easy to say "they're just mice, who cares?" but it's not wrong to ask "they're living creatures as well, shouldn't we care?" I expect the response to be "it's justified given the benefits we derive for…
[deleted]
Re: ‘Dancing molecules’ successfully repair severe spinal cord injuries
#36Do I want to know how they get mice with severe spinal cord injuries to test on? I'm guessing it's exactly what I think it is, but I'm wondering if there's another way that it happens.
It’s what you think it is, and it happens to more than just mice. I toured a bioengineering lab where they were actively severing the spines of chimpanzees to perform fiber rerouting experiments. I think the normal citizen never thinks much if at all about this kind of thing because they’re never exposed to it. A few researchers have opened up to me personally about their personal psychological trauma caused by involvement with animal experimentation. A couple PhD candidates I know changed fields entirely. One to ecology and another to environmental engineering. I personally moved forward with bioinformatics.
Edit: that isn’t to say that this result isn’t exciting for human welfare. We’ll see if it translates…
Re: ‘Dancing molecules’ successfully repair severe spinal cord injuries
#37Do I want to know how they get mice with severe spinal cord injuries to test on? I'm guessing it's exactly what I think it is, but I'm wondering if there's another way that it happens.
I'm sorry you were downvoted for asking that. I think it's a fair issue to raise. Assuming the mice are intentionally injured to allow testing, it seems reasonable, to me, to question the ethics of that. Of course it's easy to say "they're just mice, who cares?" but it's not wrong to ask "they're living creatures as well, shouldn't we care?" I expect the response to be "it's justified given the benefits we derive for…
Another good question is whether mice are a good analogue for humans as far as spinal injuries
Re: ‘Dancing molecules’ successfully repair severe spinal cord injuries
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would assume that the entire cell would die without the membrane to hold everything together. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysis
PNS nerve cells regenerate axons: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2846285/
so we just have to inject stem cells into the area where there are a lot of damaged nerve cells without nuclei and have these cells fuse with the damaged remnants. Just throw some PEG in there with the stem cells?
Re: ‘Dancing molecules’ successfully repair severe spinal cord injuries
#39The last section about generalizing the treatment is a bit underwhelming. Have they seen any evidence it can be used outside this sort of repair? What about for neuropathies, as from diabetes or surgeries? Stroke? Other dysfunctions (e.g. erectile/genital) having nervous system issues as a contributing factor?
Any treatment "might" have more general applicability--but surely there is some specific direction/class of these conditions that are indicated to be more appropriate to apply the treatment to than others. I wish they'd gone in more depth here.
Re: ‘Dancing molecules’ successfully repair severe spinal cord injuries
#40> The therapy also induces myelin to rebuild around axons and reduces glial scarring, which acts as a physical barrier that prevents the spinal cord from healing This gives the impression that this would need to be administered before any scaring takes place. It is probably not a remedy for people with old injuries.
Maybe a dumb question but.... If scar tissue forms after an injury and blocks the area (on both sides of the nerve, I assume), like this ---x x--- . Could you then cut the scarred area away, creating "new" injury that this treatment could cure? ----x x---- ---| |--- ---**---
I remember reading a story many years ago a about a boy that got a nerve severed and later they opened the wound to remove the scar in the nerve and reconnect the nerve, so it regrows. The problem was that after cutting the scar, the nerve was shorter, so they have to take a shortcut in the elbow.
I can't find the story, but these links have info that is similar enough to be confident my memory is not too bad. http://www.rebeccaayers.co.nz/procedures-and-information/han... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerve_allograft