Spinal patients can hope for a better future
The past few decades have seen some amazing advancement in medicine, allowing us to live longer and greatly improving the quality of life for many, many people.
Leading Australian neuroscientist Professor Bryce Vissel believes we are on the verge of seeing similarly life-changing improvements for people with spinal injuries as well as degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Professor Vissel, who heads the UTS Centre for Neuroscience & Regenerative Medicine, visited Orange last week at the invitation of local doctor Steve Peterson, who was left in a wheelchair after being struck by a car on his way to work at Orange Hospital.
He met Professor Vissel while recovering in Sydney and has become an advocate for the potentially life-changing and life-saving research being pursued at the Centre.
“We want to cure spinal cord injury and other related diseases,” said Professor Vissel. “The goal of what we do is to deliver a cure and through that create history. I'm not saying we will achieve it, but if you don't aim for it, you'll never achieve it and we're unashamedly working towards that goal.”
Professor Vissel’s research is built on the work of UCLA Professor Reggie Edgerton, who has demonstrated some recovery in patients with spinal cord injury by using epidural stimulation.
“We're interested in what's called neuroplasticity; the idea that the nervous system can modify itself in response to experience or injury or damage,” said Professor Vissel.
“We know after a stroke people start to show some recovery because the brain is able to reorganize itself, create new circuits, new connections and other parts of the brain can take over parts that have been lost. We believe, in the case of spinal injury we can also harness that same capacity to bring about some recovery.”
The process works by applying electrical impulses to the spinal cord below the injury.
“Once you apply the neuromodulation, it elevates the spinal cords capacity to hear the very faint signals from the brain and then the brain can initiate movement and the spinal cord will do what it needs to do,” said Professor Vissel, who is careful to stress that there is still much to learn about the treatment.
“We don't know who it is going to work in and to what extent, exactly where we need to apply the stimulator to get the best effects on different functions, we don't know the best the best stimulation protocol we need to use and so on. So there is a lot of science to be done,” he said.
Some of Professor Edgerton’s patients were able to regain the ability to use their hands, which can greatly improve a person’s independence
“For people like Steve, it would be amazing to get some hand function back!” said Professor Vissel.
“They are getting people who couldn't previously lift up a glass, take a glass and give themselves a drink. Some people can get a credit card out of a wallet —these are the sort of things that are life changing! Some recovery like that can be amazing and we don't know yet how much we can do with rehabilitation on top of that and how we can develop the technology.”
Professor Vissel is also passionate about the treatment’s potential to improve things like chest function, bladder and bowel control and temperature regulation.
“I've seen people get a cold and die because they can't cough and they end up literally drowning in their phlegm,” he said.
“For me it is an absolute urgency that we achieve what we are aiming to achieve, and we get this done.”
Professor Vissel believes that a similar approach could also see improvement in people with Parkinson’s, Alzheimers and dementia.
“It is not going to be easy, and it is not a case of a miraculous cure tomorrow. It is a lot of work to do, but we do know where the technology is today and it is no longer about ‘if’, there is enough evidence there now to know that this is real, there is real promise of some benefit.”