Zapping Spinal Cords: A Step Forward for Muscle-Wasting Diseases

Researchers have found a way to improve mobility in people with a muscle-wasting genetic disease by using a spinal cord stimulator. This is a big deal! Spinal Muscular Atrophy or SMA, was once a condition without any hope of improvement. SMA is a tough disease. It slowly destroys muscle cells and makes it hard to move around. People with SMA can't do things as easily as they used to. Medicine exists to slow down the disease, but nothing can stop it. Researchers had an idea to use spinal cord stimulation, this technology has been used to treat chronic pain. The researchers needed to know if this technique could help the muscles in SMA patients. So, they tested it out on three adults with the condition. They implanted electrodes in the lower spinal cord. This enables them to zap the spinal cord with low levels of electricity. The goal was to wake up the damaged nerve cells and strengthen the muscles.The results were promising! The participants could move around better, walk further, and felt less tired. The best part? These improvements stayed around for a while even after the device was turned off. After six weeks, the benefits of the intervention were still visible. However, the improvements were gone after six months. The study was small and short, but experts think it's a big step forward. It could open the door to more studies and even treatments for other diseases that cause muscle degeneration. Even though this research is in the early stages, it's giving hope to people with SMA that they might get some of their strength back one day.