Nanotech that Heals Brain Damage

In a recent post I described a peptide bio-gel that promotes cell growth, and acts as a three dimensional scaffold for tissue healing and cell culture. Now a cognitive science researcher at MIT has developed a liquid solution of peptide chains that self assembles into nano-fibres inside damaged brain. These nano-fibres then form a scaffold for the re-growth of severed nerves--an incredible achievement in the central nervous system. Here is the report:

Although victims of stroke and traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries sometimes recover through rehabilitation, they often have permanent disabilities, in part, because scar tissue and regulatory chemicals in the brain slow nerve growth, preventing nerve tissue from repairing itself. Now a treatment that has restored lost vision in lab animals appears to overcome these obstacles, allowing a mass of nerve cells to regrow after being cut.

"We think this is the basis of reconstructive brain surgery -- which is something nobody has ever heard of before," says Rutledge Ellis-Behnke, a researcher on the project and a brain and cognitive sciences researcher at MIT.

The treatment, described online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and performed at MIT, Hong Kong University, and Fourth Military Medical University in China, may be available to humans in trials in as little as three years if all goes well in large-animal studies, the researchers say.

In their experiments, the researchers first cut into a brain structure that conveys signals for vision, causing the small lab animals to be blinded in one eye. They then injected a clear fluid containing chains of amino acids into the damaged area. Once in the environment of the brain, these chains, called peptides, bind to one another, assembling into nano-scale fibers that bridge the gap left by the damage. The mesh of fibers prevents scar tissue from forming and may also encourage cell growth (the researchers are still investigating the mechanisms involved).

As a result, nerve cells restored severed connections, allowing 75 percent of the animals to see well enough to detect and turn toward food. The treatment restored around 30,000 nerve connections, compared with 25-30 connections made possible in other experimental treatments, Ellis-Behnke says.

Read the rest here.

Repairing damage in the brain and spinal cord has always been virtually impossible, due to the resistance to regrowth of CNS neurons. Clearly something in the peptide fibres encourages the nerves to regrow, and reconnect. Just like something in the peptide gel of the tissue scaffold in the earlier article encourages cultured cells to grow.

In those two research projects, we can see the beginnings of the development of both the growing of artificial replacement organs, and the repair of central nervous system damage in the brain and spinal cord. Now we need to watch for research that replicates these findings, and takes them further.