Even though Christopher Reeve left us recently his courage since his accident, which left him completley paralyzed, will live on and could even find a cure for spinal injuries one day. Christopher allowed himself to be a human guinea pig to sciencetists and doctors in the hope that he would be able to walk again, unfoutunley thanks to a bloodstream infection from a bedsore he fell into a cardiac arrest and was never to recover.
Unlike some celebrities who end up in a wheelchair, like Thora Hird, Christopher was deterimed to find a way to find a cure for his conditition and as some disabled celebrities pocketed cash from a stair-lift advert (Thora Hird) he set up a charity which aimed to look into ways to give hope to others in his position and founded The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundataion. Finding an actual cure for a disabilty is probably one of the biggest and benefitual aims we can think of and writing these kind of stories are sadly quite rare. So it's with great respect to the man of steel we can start reporting on the very early stages of the reseah programmes the CRPF is currently working on. Which has the fantastic slogan 'Stand Up For Those Who Can't!' which sent chuckles down our spine..
The reason why any reseach into spinal injurys has taken so bloody long is because of the negative reactions from doctors and some scienceists. It was said that there was no hope for spinal cord injuries. Reeve however was one person who refused to believe this and incrediabily more spinal research has been carried out over the past five years which has over the past fifty and progress is being made. Which does make you wonder if other disabilties which are classed as 'inciurable' may just have hope in the future.
Injuries to the spine are pretty complicated hence why the CRPF has two separte strategies behind it, the Individual Grants Program and the Research on Spinal Cord Injury. Both strategies, although doifferent have the same aim behind them, which is to find the best treatment in the quickist time.
The CRPF has quite a few action points in order to reach Christopher's dream. They wish to restore the compromised circuitry in the broked cord. In order to do this researchers at the center need to promote the neuronal growth and srvival as well as enhance the production of myelin and restore conduction capabilities Drugs will be evaluted so they can stop damage against secondary neuronal injury - not the normal kind of drugs usually assosiated with an Hollywood actor! Biological mechanisms will be elucidated to improve concomitant function. The CRPF also wish to understand a wide range of spinal injuries, not just in humns but in anaimals too so they can find out which are the most vulnerable losses in function. All these goals are achievable according to the workers at CRPF and with enough support they believe that strong progress will be seen.
The other great thing about the research is that it could well lead to more cures in other caess, such as Alzheimers, strokes Alzheimers, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimers, ALS and other neurological disorders, oh did we metion Alzheimers? we've forgotton!
A big part in trying to find a cure for spinal injury is the extensive research into Stem cells. These littlle babies are able to development into a varitey of different cells. In 1999 boffins manage to coax embryonic stem cells into nervous system progenitor cells which are the main types of nerve cells including the ones which makes mylen. Theses cells can develop into any tyupe of cell without turning into a human being. They can divide an unlimited amount of times and can easily be genetically manipulated with therapeutic utility.
This is a big step forward in cell development and hopefully can make scienicts find more answers on how they can can find cures in the future.
mylen
is a layer of fat found around
nerves and low levels in the
brain.
concomitant function
includes stuff such as..
bladder function, sexual
function and alleviate
chronic pain and spasticity.
ALS
stands for Amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis which is a
diease of the motor nerve
cells screwing up the loss of
motor control.