SEARCH FOR SCI CURE: Can estrogen hold the key to a new type of SCI treatment?

Spinal cord damage that causes paralysis and reduced mobility doesn’t always stop with the initial trauma, but there are few treatment options to halt increased deterioration — and there is no cure. In research published in Nature Communications, an interdisciplinary team from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York demonstrated how estrogen — a natural hormone produced in the body — can be polymerized into a slow-releasing biomaterial and applied to nervous system cells to protect those cells and even promote regeneration.

“Estrogen is known to be neuroprotective,” said Ryan Gilbert, a professor of biomedical engineering at Rensselaer and a member of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS). “After spinal cord injury, you have all these free radicals that are released and cause the injury to increase over time. We’re trying to stop the spread of the injury. It’s more of an acute phase treatment we are looking to develop.”

By observing nature’s methods of protection, Gilbert partnered with Edmund Palermo, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Rensselaer, to develop a polymer that — when implanted directly on the spinal cord — would target the injured tissue and release estrogen as a therapeutic over a period of years.

Read the complete article HERE.