WASHINGTON (AP) — Three people with a muscle-destroying disease destined to worsen got a little stronger – able to stand and walk more easily – when an implanted device zapped their spinal cord.
On Wednesday, researchers reported what they called the first evidence that a spine-stimulating implant might also aid neurodegenerative diseases like spinal muscle atrophy – by restoring some muscle function, at least temporarily.
already being tested for paralysis“These people were definitely not expecting an improvement,” said Marco Capogrosso, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh who led the research. Yet over the month-long pilot study, “they were getting better and better.”
Spinal muscle atrophy or SMA is a genetic disease that gradually destroys motor neurons, nerve cells in the spinal cord that control muscles. That leads muscles to waste away, especially in the legs, hips and shoulders and sometimes those involved with breathing and swallowing. There is no cure. A gene therapy can save the lives of very young children with a severe form of the disease, and there are some medicines to slow worsening in older patients.
Stimulating the spinal cord with low levels of electricity has long been used to treat chronic pain but Capogrosso’s team also has tested it to help people paralyzed from strokes or . While turned on, it zaps circuits of dormant nerves downstream of the injury to activate muscles.
spinal cord injury move their limbs unaided
