A new research study contains findings that offer an element of people to people suffering from cerebral palsy, one of the most common types of birth injury.
The term cerebral palsy is a fairly broad one for a group of disorders involving problems with movement caused by injury to the brain in the womb, during delivery, or as an infant.
According to the researcher Dr. Sujatha Kannan, there is a “window of opportunity for treatment, even after birth.” The study was published last month in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Researchers took rabbits with a cerebral palsy-type condition and treated them with a new drug that targeted certain brain cells. Rabbits who received the drug improved considerably in their mobility when compared with rabbits who did not receive the drug.
To be sure, much more work remains to be done before these findings could be applied to humans. In fact, it isn’t even clear yet whether the improvements shown in rabbits will hold up over time.
Nonetheless, encouraging news is very welcome for people struggling with cerebral palsy. The condition currently has no known cure.
In the recent study, researchers attached anti-inflammatory drugs to nanomolecules intended to carry those drugs to the microglia and astrocyte cells.
The goal was to lower the brain’s inflammatory response to bacterial infection in the womb. Left unchecked, that response can become excessive, with devastating consequences for the ability to control movement.
The rabbit experiment suggests that babies with cerebral palsy who were premature because their mother had an infection could potentially be treated.
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Cerebral Palsy: ‘Rabbit Test’ Shows Possible Treatment
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Jay W. Dankner
JAY W. DANKNER was born, raised and educated in Brooklyn, New York. After graduation from law school in 1973, he joined the firm of the legendary, Harry H, Lipsig, under whose tutelage he learned the intricacies of civil litigation and trials. He tried and won his first case against General Motors in a case involving a design defect within weeks after his admission. Thereafter, he focused his attention on the emerging and developing field of law known as products liability litigation.
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