Catalytic antioxidant nanoparticles mitigate secondary injury progression and promote functional recovery in spinal cord injury model

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) involves primary and secondary injuries. Primary injury is caused by physical impact/trauma that immediately damages the spinal cord tissue at the impacted site. The initial injury rapidly activates progressive degenerative events known as “secondary injury” that expands the initial lesion site and, with time, affects the entire spinal cord [1]. An effective intervention that can interrupt the cascade of secondary injury progression and stabilize the injured spinal cord from progressive degeneration is sorely needed [3].

• 1
  a single dose of antioxidant NPs, administered intravenously three hours after injury, effectively restored the redox balance at the lesion site, interrupting the secondary injury progression.
• 2
  This led to reduced spinal cord tissue inflammation, apoptosis, cavitation, and inhibition of syringomyelia.
• 3
  the treatment reduced scar tissue forming collagen at the lesion site, protected axons from demyelination, and stimulated lesion healing