From a tender wrapper of human life, the placenta, comes the extraction of a protein that points to a solution for something that, until now, science had no clear path to—and never one so celebrated: restoring the spinal cord in people who suffered injuries and lost body movement.
SAO PAULO/ SP, BRASIL, 09/09/2025 Tatiana Sampaio (Foto: Zanone Fraissat/Folhapress, SAUDE) - Zanone Fraissat/Folhapress
Brazilian researcher Tatiana Coelho de Sampaio, PhD professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, has quietly worked with a team of biologists for the past 25 years on the repairing and multiplying power of the protein laminin, which acts on the nervous system.
The studies ultimately produced the current drug polylaminin, a world first, presented on Tuesday (9) by Cristália laboratory as capable of regenerating the spinal cord in people who suffered organ rupture in accidents of various kinds, leading to paraplegia—paralysis of the lower limbs—or quadriplegia—paralysis of both lower and upper limbs.
During the experimental phase of the antidote, which is applied directly to the spine, patients experienced full recovery of their conditions, with no aftereffects and resuming a routine without restrictions.
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ScientiaProtestas on September 12nd, 2025 at 02:09 UTC »
For those that say nothing ever comes from these, it took 15 years to get here from their animal study.
2010 - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20643907/
And this is a pre-print from last year - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.19.24301010v1
Medical science has to be slow and careful with human testing, and many things have to happen before even that stage.
Redcole111 on September 12nd, 2025 at 01:59 UTC »
Jeez. The advances of modern medicine are insane, and really do counteract the negative news we get from basically every other sector globally.
CatalyticDragon on September 12nd, 2025 at 01:51 UTC »
Great stuff!
All six patients who received the intraspinal shot within a few days of their accidents "regained voluntary motor control below the level of the lesion, which is an unprecedented recovery"
- https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.19.24301010v1