An international science team has developed an innovative therapeutic complex based on multi-layer polymer nano-structures of superoxide dismutase (SOD). The new substance can be used to effectively rehabilitate patients after acute spinal injuries, strokes, and heart attacks.

One of the most devastating forms of trauma to the human body is a spinal cord injury, representing a serious clinical problem around the globe. In addition to the direct damage to nerve fibers, subsequent problems like the overproduction of free radicals (active forms of oxygen) and inflammation also pose serious risk.

Spinal cord injuries, strokes and cardiac arrest are caused by impacts, ruptured blood vessels and tissue necrosis. When blood arteries contract or become clogged inside an organ’s adjacent tissues, this leads to hypoxia, a pathological process linked with oxygen shortages. This factor blocks the final link of the respiratory chain at the cellular level and creates an excessive number of so-called free radicals or active forms of oxygen. They, in turn, destroy cellular membranes and initiate a sequence of reactions that damage and destroy body cells and tissues. These complications damage the spinal cord still further and kill neurons, making the clinical picture even more complicated.

An international team of scientists from universities from Russia and the United States organized by Maxim Abakumov, the head of the NUST MISIS Biomedical Nanomaterials Laboratory, has managed to find a solution to the problem of the pathological formation of free radicals in cases of spinal injuries or strokes. An innovative therapeutic complex based on synthesized nanoparticle anti-oxidants will help to create an effective rehabilitation system.

 

Image Credit:  NUST MISIS

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