Miami Project researcher Stanislava Jergova.
Miami Project Researchers Demonstrate Positive Results Using a Combination Strategy to Combat Chronic Pain Following SCI Manuscript confirms benefits of the combination of intensive exercise and GABAergic neural progenitor cell transplants in reducing neuropathic pain in SCI.
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hronic pain is a major issue for many people living with spinal cord injury (SCI). This pain, often uncontrollable, can be debilitating, greatly reducing overall quality of life. Neuropathic pain is difficult to manage, and up to two thirds of people with chronic SCI do not have an effective treatment option. Clinically, rehabilitation is recommended following SCI to enhance recovery, prevent secondary health complications, and maximize independence. While some favorable effects of exercise on neuropathic pain following SCI have been observed in small clinical studies, results have been modest and inconsistent. Previous research in the lab of Jacqueline Sagen, Ph.D., M.B.A., Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery and The Miami Project, has shown that exercise through intensive locomotor training (ILT) can reduce the development of new pain and partially reverse existing pain. Separate studies from her lab have shown that neuropathic pain can also be reduced in a preclinical model of SCI by transplanting GABAergic neural progenitor cells (NPCs) into the spinal cord. Encouraged by the positive results from these studies, Dr. Sagen and her colleagues, therefore, decided to combine the two treatment strategies, in the hopes of maximizing potential benefits. Dr. Sagen and her team found that the combination of cell transplants and exercise resulted in significant reductions of neuropathic pain, beyond what either therapy achieved alone. They observed a reduction in detrimental inflammatory processes and restoration of disrupted inhibitory pathways in the injured spinal
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The Project
