PHOTOS: Paralyzed man walks again after single injection of new treatment

This is great news for the physically challenged!

A single shot of stem cells may hold the cure for people paralyzed by a spinal cord injury. 

Stem cell scientist Hideyuki Okano from Keio University in Japan has just announced that a fully paralyzed man can now stand and is learning how to walk again after receiving reprogrammed stem cells. 

The patient was one of four Japanese men to receive the injection shortly after devastating injuries left each one paralyzed. Another man in the first-of-its-kind trial can now move some of his arm and leg muscles. Although scientists said larger clinical trials will be needed, the early results point to a 50-50 chance that stem cells could restore a paralyzed patient's ability to move again. 

Okano noted that the medical trial used induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which basically means they are normal adult cells which have been reprogrammed to act like the embryonic stem cells found in unborn babies. 

Those stem cells have the power to transform into any kind of cell the body needs, which has made them incredibly valuable for doctors looking for new ways to treat severe injuries. 

Over 15 million people worldwide are currently living with a spinal cord injury and the majority of these patients are men. 

'This is a dramatic recovery,' Okano said about the patient who can stand again. 'That person is now training to walk.' 

The new report in the journal Nature revealed that all four patients received an injection of two million iPS cells right into their respective injuries. 

Okano's team was hoping that the stem cells would turn themselves into neurons (nerve cells) and glial cells - the cells which hold nerve cells in place so they can do their jobs. 

Each man was over the age of 60 and had suffered a spinal cord injury two to four weeks before the stem cell procedure. The cells were taken from a donor after the program received the full support of the Japanese government in 2019. Before that, Okano had demonstrated how the reprogrammed cells could regenerate neurons in monkeys paralyzed by a spinal cord injury. 

After received approval for human trials, an ideal patient emerged in December 2021, followed by three other spinal cord injury victims in 2022 and 2023. 

The researchers have been following these patients ever since, hoping that the cells would begin to regrow the damaged parts of their spinal cords preventing communication between their brains and limbs. A full year of follow-up revealed that there were no side-effects to the stem cell injections and half the group has begun to show noticeable improvements. 

Prior to the start of this medical experiment, scientists used other types of stem cells with very mixed results. James St. John, a translational neuroscientist at Griffith University in Australia admitted: 'Nothing's really worked so far.' 

This included using cells taken from human bone marrow, muscle-making cells harvested from donors, and embryonic stem cells extracted from fetuses. 

In the new procedure, scientists grab cells from easily accessible areas like an adult donor's skin or blood. 

Next, researchers use a set a four specific genes which they slip into the harvested cells - turning the clock back and forcing them to turn into stem cells. 

Scientists inject these genes into the cells using carriers like harmless viruses or mRNA - the same tool doctors use for vaccines. Nobel Prize winner Shinya Yamanaka was first credited with discovering these genetic switches for reprogramming cells in 2006. It can take weeks before the adult cells start to lose all of these specialized traits and revert back into stem cells. 

Once they're all turned into stem cells, doctors can inject them into the areas of the body where there's damage or degeneration. 

If successful, the cells will start to act like the missing or damaged cells - essentially re-growing those parts of the body - such as a knee ligament, the retina of an eye, or a spinal cord. 'That's a great positive outcome. It's very exciting for the field,' St. John added. 

However, St. John warned that there's still a long way to go before this breakthrough becomes a definitive cure for spinal injuries. St. John, who has conducted his own stem cell trials involving spinal cord injuries, noted that every single injury is different and researchers will need to run more trials to see if iPS cells work for all types of injuries or just certain paralysis cases. 

Culled From MSN.COM.