Science / Medicine : Experimental Drug Limits Paralysis in Spinal Injuries

Immediate treatment with high doses of a drug found in nerve cell membranes can dramatically limit the degree of paralysis in people who suffer from spinal cord injuries, a team of Maryland researchers reported.

Their study, published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, could help some of the 10,000 Americans who suffer spinal cord injuries each year. Most of the victims are men under 30 who are in automobile accidents.

The team, which looked at 34 patients who received the drug or a placebo, stressed that more tests were needed before the drug should be considered a safe and effective therapy.

The experimental drug, monosialotetrahexosylganglioside or GM-1 ganglioside, is sold in Italy and Brazil under the brand name Sygen by Fidia Pharmaceutical Corp., an Italian firm that helped finance the study.

In the study, led by Dr. Fred H. Geisler of the University of Maryland, patients with spinal cord injuries received their first dose of GM-1 within 72 hours after being hurt.

Those who got GM-1 were more likely to show rapid improvement on the tests used by doctors to judge the recovery of patients with spinal cord injuries.

Their improvement “represents a dramatic increase in neurological function, with the majority of these patients changing from paralyzed to ambulatory status,” the researchers concluded.