New treatment that Israeli scientists say will help paralysed people walk

Israeli scientists have hailed their 80% success rate in a ground-breaking spinal implant treatment that could help wheelchair-bound people to walk again.

The researchers at Tel Aviv University say their team used abdomen tissue samples to engineer an implant that helps mimic the development of a spinal cord during the early stages of pregnancy.

It could pave the way for people who are left paralysed through injury, such as in a road traffic accident, to walk once more.

Professor Tal Dvir, who led the team at Sagol Center for Regenerative Biotechnology, said: “There are millions of people around the world who are paralysed due to spinal injury, and there is still no effective treatment for their condition.

“Individuals injured at a very young age are destined to sit in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives, bearing all the social, financial, and health-related costs of paralysis.”

The treatment was tested on mice divided into two groups: those who had been paralysed in recent months, and those whose injuries occurred more than a year ago.

All animals in the first group were able to walk after receiving the spinal implant; the success rate in the latter group was 80%.

“The model animals underwent a rapid rehabilitation process, at the end of which they could walk quite well,” Prof Dvir said.

“This is the first instance in the world in which implanted engineered human tissues have generated recovery in an animal model for long-term chronic paralysis – which is the most relevant model for paralysis treatments in humans.”

He said the next objective was to develop personalised spinal cord implants for people to help them regenerate damaged tissue without risk of rejection.

The results of the study were published in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Science.