Montreal researchers who are at the forefront of work in this field have developed an interface that allows an animal whose hind legs are paralyzed to start walking again, by alternately stimulating the two hemispheres of its brain.
These pre-clinical trials were conducted on what the researchers call a “large animal model” that looks much more like humans than mice. Their results are so conclusive that they are now ready to move on to clinical trials in a few years.
“We will alternately stimulate the left cortex and the right cortex, so as to allow the recovery of the movement of the two legs”, explained Marina Martinez, who is a regular researcher at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur-de-Montréal and Professor in the Department of Neurosciences at the University of Montreal.
“As soon as we trigger the alternating stimulations in the brain, the animal will immediately start walking again. »
Unique research in the world
The M teamme Martinez is the only one in the world to work on such a strategy to potentially one day enable paraplegics to walk again. Their most recent work has been published by ScienceDirect.
The researchers had previously tested the same approach on mice, which had injuries that looked less like those found in humans. This time they used larger animals and wounds very similar to human wounds.
In the first study, a single cortex was stimulated with electrodes to relieve the paralysis of a single mouse leg. This time, the two cortices were alternately stimulated to get the two paralyzed legs of a larger animal moving again, which is clearly close to human paraplegia.
“When you walk, you alternate your movements with both legs and we, that’s what we want to do with this technique and that’s what we managed to do in this animal model,” said Ms.me Martinez.
Technological innovations
The technologies used are also much more similar to what could possibly be implemented in humans, which should facilitate the transfer of knowledge.
“We have really reached a higher stage, estimated Mme Martinez. With the rat, we had a proof of concept. There, we are in a very clinical stage. »
The technology she and her colleagues are fine-tuning applies only to incomplete spinal cord injuries. They’re trying to replicate normal brain activity to give the spinal cord the instructions it should naturally receive while walking, which means that certain nerve fibers still connect the brain to the lower body.
If this technology can ever be applied to complete spinal cord injuries, Ms.me Martinez, “each step gives us this opportunity to get a little closer to the human”.
“The ultimate goal of our team is really to help patients and those who need it. That’s what we work for, it’s really for them, it’s our main motivation, ”she concluded.