3 min readHere’s what you’ll learn when reading this story:
- In recent years, scientists have used organoids as an easy, affordable method of testing potential therapies before performing human clinical trials.
- A new study applies this groundbreaking technology to treating spinal injury by developing injured spinal organoids and testing a therapy known as “dancing molecules,” which has proven effective in animal models.
- Scientists found that this treatment also proved effective in their mini spine organoids, the most accurate yet created.
To be in the subphylum Vertebrata means to have one biological feature in common—a spinal cord. Quite literally the backbone of human life, the spinal column and its 33 vertebrae are key to our ability to navigate the world, but when something goes wrong with our spine, whether by acute trauma or disease, it can drastically impact quality of life. That’s why the spine has been a central concern for scientists as they leverage modern technologies to cure, or at the very least abate, some of the most crippling of spinal injuries.
One of those modern technologies is what’s called an organoid. Like their name suggests, organoids are small, simple recreations of human organs typically grown from stem cells, and they’re particularly useful as a first step toward testing new therapies on human patients, as these organs are tailor-made to contain the tissue structure and cellular complexity of real organs. Scientists have created all kinds of organoids, including brain organoids (which triggered some ethical discussions about whether these structures could become conscious), and in a new study published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team led by scientists at Northwestern University applied this same technique to the human spine.
Growing spinal organoids using stem cells, the researchers designed two structures with common spinal injuries—lacerations and compressive contusions. Then, they went to work applying a technique called “dancing molecules” therapy. First described in 2021 when Northwestern’s Samuel Stupp, lead author of this new study, successfully treated the spinal cords of paralyzed mice, this treatment relies on fine-tuning the motion of molecules so that they engage with cellular receptors that are constantly moving.
“Receptors in neurons and other cells constantly move around,” Stupp said back in 2021. “By making the molecules move, ‘dance,’ or even leap temporarily out of these structures, known as supramolecular polymers, they are able to connect more effectively with receptors.”
Fast-forward five years, and Stupp and his team are inching closer to perfecting this possible therapy for human patients. When analyzing the injured spinal organoids, they noticed that the resulting cell death and glial scarring matched what’s observed in a typical spinal cord injury. When applied via injection, the liquid therapy formed a scaffold and then reduced inflammation and glial scarring.
Additionally, they saw the regeneration of neurites—axons and dendrites that extend from the neuron and connect other cells—as well as the growth of neurons in organized patterns. Regrowth of neurites is particularly important as these crucial tendrils are often severed after a spinal injury. Stupp hopes that future research will focus on ever more convincing spinal organoids before, ultimately, being tested in human trials.
“One of the most exciting aspects of organoids is that we can use them to test new therapies in human tissue,” Stupp said in a press statement. “Short of a clinical trial, it’s the only way you can achieve this objective…This is validation that our therapy has a good chance of working in humans.”
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Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough.