Spinal cord injuries can be treated with Atorvastatin
Atorvastatin (AT) may be considered as an effective treatment form to cure spinal cord injuries following trauma, as per a multidisciplinary investigation.
This investigation was led by Inderjit Singh, Ph.D, of the Medical University of South Carolina. Inderjit Singh is a Pediatrics distinguished university professor, Division of Developmental Neurogenetics director and Darby Children’s Research Institute scientific director.
From News-Medical.Net:
Spinal cord injury is a major cause of disability, and the current therapy of high dose steroids offers little benefit. It is now accepted that the site, nature, and duration of secondary inflammations occurring immediately after a spinal cord injury determine the extent of functional loss or paralysis, and early reduction of these events is shown to minimize functional loss and enhance recovery. As a result, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective agents, including statins, are the favored first line of defense as therapeutic agents in spinal cord injuries.
“These exciting findings suggest that AT shelters myelin producing cells and neurons during the inflammatory storm produced by trauma, and that when the storm has passed that such cells resume myelin production,” said DCRI executive director Bernard Maria, M.D. “It opens up a new paradigm for treatment of spinal cord injury by preserving the integrity of progenitor cells that would otherwise have died off.”
It was found during the investigation that use of AT to treat spinal cord injuries promotes significant functional recovery and less secondary tissue damage.
