A drug developed at Case Western at Case Western Biotechnology Incubator is showing promise in helping paralyzed patients regain movement after spinal cord injuries.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - A drug developed at Case Western at Case Western Biotechnology Incubator is showing promise in helping paralyzed patients regain movement after spinal cord injuries.
“I had a fall at home. Within a few minutes, I knew that I was paralyzed. From the neck down, I couldn’t move,” Westington said.
“I was terrified of what the prospect of my life was going to be,” she said.
“There’s never been a true solution to function, walking, hand function or breathing to these patients,” Lang said. His predecessor, Dr. Jerry Silver, discovered a specific scar was the primary roadblock to nerve regrowth. Lang and others at the Case Western biotechnology incubator came up with educated guesses for how to apply what they learned.
“And one of them worked. One of them worked incredibly well. We identified one peptide out of twelve that worked to allow nerves to regrow,” Lang said.
The discovery seemed too good to be true, so they spent three years validating it, testing on other nerves and spinal cord injury animal models.
“These animals after you give them the drug went from paralyzed and dragging themselves around to up and running in 7 weeks or less,” he said.
In a phase two clinical trial, patients like Westington with limited or no hand, arm or leg movement from spinal cord injuries were dosed once a day under the skin with NVG-291.
“The results were unbelievable to me as someone in the field. There’s never a solution or a drug that has ever worked for repairing spinal cord injury,” Lang said.
“And I was like ‘Oh my God’...I absolutely had not opened my hand like that since before,” she said.
Paralysis patient, Stayce Westington, has recovered from a spinal cord injury and is now walking and using her arms thanks to a new drug, NVG-291
“I can walk a short distance without a walker,” Westington said.
Her fellow trial participants also regained significant amounts of hand function. Some regained leg function and could smell again, even control their bladder. The trial was deemed a success because of these meaningful improvements critical to patients’ independence.
“I believe it is ground-breaking to allow the future generation of people who have these devastating injuries have a chance at having a normal life,” Westington said.
“That’s every scientist’s dream, to design something that makes a change in somebody’s life or somebody’s health,” Lang said.
Lang said he hopes the nerve regeneration will soon help every paralyzed person, patients with neurologic trauma and even those suffering from neurological disorders.
“Stroke, traumatic brain injuries, you could even close your eyes and imagine it helping...Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s disease and ALS,” he said.
NervGen is now in discussion with the FDA about a phase three trial, after which it could potentially go to market.
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Paralysis Reversal Drug Case Western Reserve University NVG-291 Nerve Regeneration Therapy
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