An experimental new drug worked to helped severed nerve cells regrow in rats, and might offer promise as a way to treat spinal cord injuries, researchers said Tuesday. The drug, known as inosine, caused axons to grow far along the spinal cords of rats from the uninjured side to the injured side, the team at Boston Life Sciences, Inc. reported.
Axons are the long, thin arms that link one nerve cell to another.
Dr. Larry Benowitz and colleagues at Children's Hospital in Boston said they were amazed to see the axons grow so far. Benowitz and colleagues severed one side of the corticospinal tract in rats. These axons start from the motor cortex in the brain and descend to the spinal cord. They then infused inosine into the brain's motor cortex. Two weeks later, they injected dye into these same brain cells, and then killed the animals to see what had happened.