Sep 2018 - Orally available drug helps tip the balance of inhibition and excitation signals
Most spinal cord injuries spare islands of intact neural tissues below the injury, which contain nerve fibres that remain connected to executive centres. But for unclear reasons, these anatomically intact connections remain functionally dormant. Scientists have demonstrated that reducing the excitability of inhibitory neurons within the injured region of the spinal cord enables these dormant connections to relay commands from the brain, and promotes partial recovery of locomotion in mice that have sustained an SCI that causes complete paralysis.
The research paper was published in Cell in July 2018
You can read the whole Nature analysis from September 2018 article here.