Live from Working 2 Walk 2011!

[Johnnie Walked]

Dr. J. Silver and Dr. Wise Young,

I believe one day have read here on CC. that Dr. Wise Young is a member of the board of Acorda, why not work together

[Jim]

From an earlier post-

I am not part of the management team for StemCyte. I don't receive and have never received payment from Stemcyte for my advice, consultation, or services. I don't own any Stemcyte stocks and have no options or any kind of arrangement with them to receive stocks. Stemcyte is donating umbilical cord blood (UCB) units for ChinaSCINet and SCINetUSA clinical trials.

I do give them advice but do not get paid personally for the advice. Several of our discoveries, i.e. that lithium stimulates umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells to secrete neurotrophins, are being patented. Last year, Rutgers University licensed the patents to Stemcyte and the University will receive royalty should the technology result in products and profits. In exchange, Stemcyte also funds some of our spinal cord research, has supported ChinaSCINet and several of our workshops and symposia in China, and they will be donating all the umbilical cord blood units and processing to ChinaSCINet and SCINetUSA.
Wise

[kate]

What can we do, write to the company.

Hi again . . . a good first step would be to watch Tony Caggiano (from Acorda) giving his presentation at the conference. It's here:

http://www.unite2fightparalysis.org/2011_w2w_videos

[Christopher Paddon]

Oh great - if we come back in a few years Acorda may have solved the chondoitinaise problems - well forget that one I think - no urgency there

some of us don't have as much time as others

[Leo]

Chondroitinase could have a remarkable effect in combination with rehab and is soooo safe. I suggest unite and encourage the SCI community to barrage Acorda with a continuous stream of letters. I do know that James Fawcett with help from the International Spinal Research Trust (England) are working towards clinical trials. I myself will be pushing for trials as well.

I could use some help on this draft.

Dear Mr. Caggiano

My name is from . I have been paralyzed for xx years and have recently become aware that Acorda holds the patent on a drug that has shown promise in restoring function in spinal cord injured rats.

I heard that you attended this years working 2 Walk symposium put on by U2FP and want to thank you for doing so.

I know that SCI seems to be seen as a small market when it comes to profit, however if
you look at

I am urging you to reconsider the priority treating SCI has in your companies future.

Anthony O. Caggiano, M.D., Ph.D.
Acorda Therapeutics, Inc.
15 Skyline Drive
Hawthorne, NY 10532

[Christopher Paddon]

complete injuries and chondroitinaise

Could Jerry Silver or Wise Young speculate on this? It seems, if I am reading it correctly, that chondroitinaise alone could radically improve someone with an incomplete injury but for 'fully transected' injuries nerve grafting or stem cells will be needed to bridge the gap.

Could it be that chondroitinaise alone could have a big effect on complete injuries too because in these cases the cord isn't physically cut and many fibres may still remain? I understand that the mri scans of complete and incomplete injuries can be difficult to tell apart.

I am probably being naiive wishing that there be such a simple solution.............

[Fly_Pelican_Fly]

Could Jerry Silver or Wise Young speculate on this? It seems, if I am reading it correctly, that chondroitinaise alone could radically improve someone with an incomplete injury but for 'fully transected' injuries nerve grafting or stem cells will be needed to bridge the gap.

Could it be that chondroitinaise alone could have a big effect on complete injuries too because in these cases the cord isn't physically cut and many fibres may still remain? I understand that the mri scans of complete and incomplete injuries can be difficult to tell apart.

I am probably being naiive wishing that there be such a simple solution.............

Christopher, it has been repeatedly mentioned that Ch'ase alone will promote plasticity in conjunction with intensive rehabilitation. There are plenty of papers and pre-clinical work to support this. And yes, using Ch'ase alone will require some tissue sparing. A fully transected cord is very very rare. We should rightly be excited about this enzyme - but equally frustrated at the challenges.

The challenge has always been that the enzyme (whether it is the bacterial version or the thermostabilized human-grade version) doesnt stay in the system long enough to reap massive benefits. Opening up the body and repeatedly injecting Ch'ase every month is not really a practical option. So, that is why researchers are looking at other less intrusive solutions to deliver Ch'ase to the system.

[jsilver]

Christopher, it has been repeatedly mentioned that Ch'ase alone will promote plasticity in conjunction with intensive rehabilitation. There are plenty of papers and pre-clinical work to support this. And yes, using Ch'ase alone will require some tissue sparing. A fully transected cord is very very rare. We should rightly be excited about this enzyme - but equally frustrated at the challenges.

The challenge has always been that the enzyme (whether it is the bacterial version or the thermostabilized human-grade version) doesnt stay in the system long enough to reap massive benefits. Opening up the body and repeatedly injecting Ch'ase every month is not really a practical option. So, that is why researchers are looking at other less intrusive solutions to deliver Ch'ase to the system.

Just a quick comment to clear up a misconception. Just one injection of ch'ase (although the enzyme is heat unstable) degrades the perineuronal net CSPGs for many many months because these matrix molecules turn over very slowly. The major challenge going forward is to administer the enzyme over a wide enough area to effect functional sprouting in a relatively large spinal cord like that in the human. the new pig models of cord injury that are now being developed will help us tackle this problem. I have suggested the manufacture of a micropipette array so we can deliver the enzyme over a wide area in one single session.

[GRAMMY]

<LI class=a1>

<LI class=b1>Multi Channel Micropipette

Glass Agencies are Manufacturer of Multi Channel Micropipette.

Could one just combine 2 of these for a "double" channel like this one so there would be adjustment capabilities for lesion size and it could then reach both sides of the lesion for a six fold injection? Could they be syncronized together or would they need to start from scratch?

[6 Shooter]

Just a quick comment to clear up a misconception. Just one injection of ch'ase (although the enzyme is heat unstable) degrades the perineuronal net CSPGs for many many months because these matrix molecules turn over very slowly. The major challenge going forward is to administer the enzyme over a wide enough area to effect functional sprouting in a relatively large spinal cord like that in the human. the new pig models of cord injury that are now being developed will help us tackle this problem. I have suggested the manufacture of a micropipette array so we can deliver the enzyme over a wide area in one single session.

Dr Silver--check out this technique for administering Ch'ase and/or stem cells over a wide area. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXO_ApjKPaI

[Jawaid]

Shooter sorry could not open this link here in my country.

Can u tell bit about this procedure of giving chase or stem cells?

[jsilver]

<LI class=a1>

<LI class=b1>Multi Channel Micropipette

Glass Agencies are Manufacturer of Multi Channel Micropipette.

Could one just combine 2 of these for a "double" channel like this one so there would be adjustment capabilities for lesion size and it could then reach both sides of the lesion for a six fold injection? Could they be syncronized together or would they need to start from scratch?

That's the basic idea but we will need fine control and much smaller tip glass pipettes. the pump will have to be much stronger. We now use a device called a Nanoject which could be scaled up to deliver larger amounts. the spay idea is not really going to work because we have to inject inside the spinal cord.

[Fly_Pelican_Fly]

How will an array cope with the natural movement of the spinal cord? NeuralStem had to construct what looks like a mini oil-rig for a single transplantation into the cord.

[jsilver]

How will an array cope with the natural movement of the spinal cord? NeuralStem had to construct what looks like a mini oil-rig for a single transplantation into the cord.

They are injecting much larger volumes and they use much larger bore pipettes because they have to force large numbers of cells (without killing them) into the cord. We have the advantage here of only needing to inject small volumes of solution (but over a relatively wide distance) so our pipettes can be extremely fine and they can bend a bit as the cord moves. Of course any injection into the cord can cause some damage so we will need to experiment on injection techniques using a large animal model.

[paolocipolla]

Paolo wants to know if they think we're supposed to get excited by hearing about hypothermia? W here is the chronic work? There aren't any acutes in the room. I don't get it.

Slotkin: Well, it's constantly on our minds -- for one thing because investors know that there are a lot more chronics than acutes. We do acutes first because those models are more well-established and easier to fund. Right now we're raising a colony of chronically injured animals.

How many?

Right now just in the pilot stage with a couple of hemisection (not contusion) thoracic. Also what about hypothermia, since that was brought up? That football player didn't just get hypothermia, he got rapid decompression, because he was lucky enough to have a spinal surgeon standing next to him when he got hurt. So we don't really know what it was that helped him.

Dietrich: We did show that Schwann cells can be transplanted 6 months post, and have published rat studies where the treatments were delayed. If you come to the Miami project, you'll find the whole first floor full of people in chairs -- we have targeted chronics, we will target them. I hope you get it.

Sorry, I don't. Why is there not 50% of the work being done on chronics? I would say it's like 95% of the work is being done on acutes. I have given you money before, but I'm not doing that anymore. It doesn't make sense. I don't get it.

Dietrich: Our strategy is to go to the fda and get the easiest thing done first, according to them, and move forward into chronics as quickly as we possibly can.

Seems like hypothermia is a no-brainer . . . didn't we know about that since 1976? I was injured 3 years ago and nobody offered it to me. Congratulations to you, Dr. Dietrich, for making that sports doctor aware that it was even possible. I just want to underline the fact that we need to move this field forward a lot FASTER. If there's anyone from the fda in the room, I hope they're listening.

Dietrich: Well, hypothermia has a lot of risk factors, and we've tried to refine the treatment . . . what kind of technology do you need to make it safe? It takes a long time . . .

But cardiac patients already get hypothermia. It really feels like there's not enough aggression.

Slotkin: Well, there's a paper in the NE Journal of Medicine about cardiac patients being taken off that protocol due to safety issues . . .

Gah, need to stop. I want to keep doing this. Next is smaller workshop rooms, where I could ask questions if anybody has one.

That was in 2011..