One of the worst traumas for any person is paralysis. A condition in which there is a loss of motor activity of one, several limbs or the whole body. This can happen for a variety of reasons and this condition is not always treatable. However, according to the editors of the publication Nature Medicine, a joint group of neurophysiologists from the United States and Russia managed to do the almost impossible - to return the paralyzed person to the ability to walk independently.
A man who was paralyzed after falling from a snowmobile 2 years ago was lucky enough to take part in the experiment. For such patients, there are various experimental techniques, which are mainly based on the use of stem cells, but in this situation, experts decided to take a different path. According to one of the authors of the work, Kendall Lee, who works at the Mayo Clinic (USA)
Together with their colleagues from the St. Petersburg Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after Pavlov, experts from the United States have developed a unique technique based on the fact that even with significant spinal injuries, some of the nerve fibers retain their function. They are not involved in physical activity, but they can be "switched" to other tasks. The electrical stimulation of these neurons with a special chip, together with training using a special exoskeleton, helps to fully restore mobility. At least in experiments on laboratory animals it succeeded. Now this approach has been tested in humans.
Vladimir Kuznetsov