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Reducing neuronal inhibition restores locomotion in paralysed mice

Spinal-cord injury can render intact neuronal circuits functionally dormant. Targeted reduction of neuronal inhibition in the injured region has now enabled reactivation of these circuits in mice, restoring basic locomotion.
  1. Grégoire Courtine

    1. Grégoire Courtine is at the Center for Neuroprosthetics and the Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, and in the Department of Neurosurgery, Lausanne University Hospital.

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When we decide to walk, the brain broadcasts commands through parallel neuronal pathways that cascade to executive centres in the lumbar region of the spinal cord1. A spinal-cord injury (SCI) scatters this exquisitely organized communication system, leading to severe locomotor deficits or paralysis2. Most SCIs spare islands of intact neural tissues below the injury, which contain nerve fibres that remain connected to executive centres. But for unclear reasons, these anatomically intact connections remain functionally dormant. Writing in Cell, Chen et al.3 demonstrate that reducing the excitability of inhibitory neurons within the injured region of the spinal cord enables these dormant connections to relay commands from the brain, and promotes partial recovery of locomotion in mice that have sustained an SCI that causes complete paralysis.

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Nature 561, 317-318 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06651-3

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Competing Interests

G.C. holds various patents in relation to the present work. He is a founder and shareholder of GTX Medical, a company developing a therapeutic intervention for clinical applications directly in relation to the reported results.

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