2023-04-19 13:35:51
It is possible to generate or facilitate walking by stimulating a specific group of neurons, researchers at Laval University have found.
This discovery might one day help patients who have suffered a cervical spine injury or who experience movement disorders. “Our study identifies that wedge-shaped glutamatergic neurons are a good therapeutic target for patients with spinal cord injuries,” researcher Frédéric Bretzner, from the Faculty of Medicine at Laval University, told The Canadian Press. and the Research Center of the CHU de Québec-Université Laval.
Professor Bretzner and his colleagues used what he calls ‘optogenetic tools’ to stimulate two different neuronal populations and determine which of the two facilitated walking the most. These optogenetic tools are actually viruses that are injected into neurons and then stimulated with blue light. This has the effect of activating the targeted neurons and causing a reaction. The experiment was first carried out in intact mice, then in mice that had been inflicted with a spinal cord injury to characterize the contribution of these different regions.
This allowed the researchers, as a first step, to see that these neurons participate in the spontaneous recovery of walking that occurs immediately following injury. “But beyond that, in a chronic condition, so we are talking regarding seven to eight weeks following the spinal cord injury, (…) we can improve the quality of walking,” said Professor Bretzner. We are still a long way from testing in humans, he said, but similar experiments have already been carried out in the retina. Deep brain stimulation, which is already used clinically, might also help improve the quality of life of these patients.
The findings of this study were published by the medical journal Cell Reports Medicine.
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