{"id":3728,"date":"2022-02-14T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=3728"},"modified":"2022-02-02T03:12:57","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T03:12:57","slug":"novel-nerve-healing-technology-achieved-via-improved-guidance-conduits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/novel-nerve-healing-technology-achieved-via-improved-guidance-conduits\/","title":{"rendered":"Novel Nerve Healing Technology Achieved Via Improved \u201cGuidance Conduits\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ever get yourself in a pretty nasty injury, have it heal, and find out that it doesn\u2019t \u201cfeel\u201d as it did before? You don\u2019t seem to be alone, as it\u2019s well-known that major injuries can often heal, but the nerves that come with them often struggle to heal back to pristine condition. This means that patients that recover sometimes come attached with reduced mobility or sensory problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where researchers from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) come in; they managed to find out, through mice tests, that loading proteins from the extracellular matrix<\/em> (ECM) into nerve guidance conduit<\/em> (NGC) implants can improve nerve repair, giving patients a chance at nerve recovery after serious injuries. Their novel methodology was published in the journal Matrix Biology<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Using the novel technology from RCSI researchers may soon improve nerve healing for patients who went through major injuries. (Gatewood, 2017)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The ECM is an organized network of body macromolecules that \u201clink\u201d together to contribute to the mechanical properties of body tissues, according to a paper from Dr. Beatrice Yue published in the Journal of Glaucoma<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thinking goes that by obtaining a mix of proteins from the ECM and implanting it onto NGCs, the NGCs themselves gain properties that boost the quality of healing that they do while they direct nerves along specific paths to allow for better nerve regeneration. This allows the NGC implants to \u201cmimic the body\u2019s nerve repair processes,\u201d according to a press release by the RCSI<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The breakthrough study was led by principal investigator Prof. Fergal O\u2019Brien and assisted by lead authors Dr. Alan Hibbitts and Dr. Zuzana Ko\u010d\u00ed, from the RCSI\u2019s Tissue Engineering Research Group, Department of Anatomy and Regenerative Medicine and Science Foundation Ireland\u2019s (SFI\u2019s) Research Centre for Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research (AMBER). The three were assisted by a team of researchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[The] research had a clear focus \u2013 to create a device based on scientific excellence with improved outcomes that would translate well through regulatory assessment, into the clinical setting, and ultimately, patients.”<\/p>Prof. Fergal O’Brien, on the ultimate goal of their novel research into improving nerve guidance conduits<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Said Drs. Hibbitts and Ko\u010d\u00ed in the RCSI press release: “In our lab-based trials, we discovered that at eight weeks [post-implantation] our nerve guidance conduit had successfully improved the prognosis for nerve regeneration and repair over the current clinical gold standard. Our conduit supported clear improvements in nerve repair and blood vessel formation and most importantly, we saw that we could scale this up to approach very large nerve defects in our pre-clinical studies.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. O\u2019Brien added: \u201c[The] research had a clear focus \u2013 to create a device based on scientific excellence with improved outcomes that would translate well through regulatory assessment, into the clinical setting, and ultimately, patients. This provides a more direct route to market and therefore the potential for faster real-world impact in improving patient quality of life.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers are now hard at work improving their technology to someday allow for human trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(For more medical news, check out implanted computers that go \u201con the bone\u201d<\/a>; after that, read about novel brain implants that allow previously blind persons to gain some of their vision again<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n