We've updated our Privacy Policy to make it clearer how we use your personal data. We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. You can read our Cookie Policy here.

Advertisement

Existing Drug Improves Spinal Injury Recovery in Animal Model

A medical sketch of a spine.
Credit: Joyce Hankins/ Unsplash
Listen with
Speechify
0:00
Register for free to listen to this article
Thank you. Listen to this article using the player above.

Want to listen to this article for FREE?

Complete the form below to unlock access to ALL audio articles.

Read time: 1 minute

Scientists investigating potential drugs to improve recovery from spinal cord injury have uncovered a promising route to new treatments.


Researchers tested more than 1000 potential drugs and identified that an existing one – cimetidine – improved spinal repair in zebrafish.


The drug also helped improve recovery of movement and reduce the extent of spinal cord damage when tested in spinal-injured mice.


The findings shed new light on the biological pathways involved in recovery from spinal cord injury, experts say.

Excessive inflammation

Sudden impacts on the spinal cord – for example, those caused by a car accident – can lead to life-long injuries.


Healing can be inefficient due to inflammation caused by an overreaction of the body’s immune system, which normally protects against infections.


Drugs that reduce inflammation by suppressing the whole immune response also inhibit the immune cells which promote repair.

Drug discovery

The University of Edinburgh-led study tested multiple drugs in zebrafish larvae for their ability to prevent excessive inflammation during an immune response.

Want more breaking news?

Subscribe to Technology Networks’ daily newsletter, delivering breaking science news straight to your inbox every day.

Subscribe for FREE
Scientists discovered that cimetidine acts by helping to regulate levels of histamine – a chemical released by the immune system which is involved in inflammatory reactions – in the body.


The findings have enabled the team to pinpoint a specific signaling pathway that moderates the immune response after spinal injury to support repair.

Zebrafish model

Experts say that other drugs that work in a similar way could also be tested for their ability to support recovery from spinal injury. They caution, however, that further studies are needed to investigate their impact in human clinical trials.

The study highlights the usefulness of zebrafish in the drug discovery process, researchers say.


The research team included scientists from the University of Edinburgh, the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and Technische Universität Dresden.


The ability to screen a large number of drugs using the zebrafish model has revealed an important target for future research into spinal cord repair. Our findings open the door to potential new treatments that can moderate inflammation and improve recovery from spinal injury.
Professor Catherina Becker, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh and the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) at TU Dresden

Reference: Oprişoreanu AM, Ryan F, Richmond C, et al. Drug screening in zebrafish larvae reveals inflammation-related modulators of secondary damage after spinal cord injury in mice. Theranostics. 2023;13(8):2531-2551. doi: 10.7150/thno.81332


This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.