Real Time Brain Scans for Australia

The University of Queensland's Brain Institute's (QBI) newest MRI machine will allow researchers to monitor real time changes in the brain and spinal cord injury. Conditions likely to benefit range from Alzheimer's to Parkinson's to spinal cord injury.

Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) director Professor Perry Bartlett said QBI scientists were using the equipment to look at molecules they believe would help with the regrowth of damaged nerve cells following trauma, such as spinal cord injury.

"We've learned a lot about how we think the brain works, but we've never been able to look at it in real time," Prof [Perry] Bartlett said.

"If this proves successful in animal models, we could conceivably go to (human) trials within the next 18 months to two years."

The story fails to mention what, exactly, Bartlett is saying could go to human trials within two years. Based on his previous work, it's safe to assume that he is referring to a treatment for acute spinal cord injury.

“[Lisa Palmer's $650,000 generosity] will allow the team at the Queensland Brain Institute and our consortium colleagues to further our discovery that inhibiting the molecule EphA4 leads to spinal cord repair.

“[It] will help us attain the goal of commencing human clinical trials in 2008,” Professor Bartlett said.

If EphA4 makes no sense to you, you'll be happy to know that Bartlett provided a thorough explanation elsewhere.

After spinal cord injury in normal mice, and humans, nerve fibers called axons extend out, looking for a new connection. The growing axons hit a chemical blockade at the injury site, which prevent them from growing any further.

Narration: So scientists wondered - if the nerves are still alive, is it possible to revive their trail?

But the path remained stubbornly hidden. Then, in the early 1990’s, a breakthrough.

The discovery of a group of proteins called EPH’s.

They guide in two ways. Some EPH molecules attract the nerves.

Others repel, telling nerves where not to go, providing walls to their path.

Professor Perry Bartlett: They sort of find their way down using direct contact with the wall of the maze where these repulsive molecules reside.

Bartlett developed a mouse strain that lacked the EphA4 gene to see what happened to it after a spinal cord injury.

Six weeks after the injury, analysis showed that 70% of the axons in these mice had grown through the injury site, compared to only 1 or 2% in normal mice. Three months after the injury, the mice were almost completely recovered.

The deletion of EphA4 had actually prevented the chemical blockade at the injury site (glial scar) from forming.

Chronic injuries already contain glial scars, so this therapy isn't directly applicable to those who have been paralyzed for a while like me. There's a good chance, however, that the glial scar could be removed so that the EphA4-based therapy has a chance of working.

You may have to reinjure the spinal cord slightly above and below the existing injury site, but I think the temporary inconvenience would be worth it if recovery was to follow.

New Machine Looks Closer at Brains [The Age]