Nanomedicine paves the way for new treatments for spinal cord injury
Originally published by Polytechnic University of Milan, on February 14, 2024 Nanogel—Scheme of selective drug treatment in the central nervous system. Credit: Politecnico di Milano—Istituto Mario Negri In a study published in Advanced Materials , researchers have demonstrated that an innovative nano-vector (nanogel) , which they developed, is able to deliver anti-inflammatory drugs in a targeted manner into glial cells actively involved in the evolution of spinal cord injury , a condition that leads to paraplegia or quadriplegia . Treatments currently available to modulate the inflammatory response mediated by the component that controls the brain's internal environment after acute spinal cord injury showed limited efficacy. This is also due to the lack of a therapeutic approach that can selectively act on microglial and astrocytic cells. The nanovectors developed by Politecnico di Milano , called nanogels, consist of polymers that can bind to specific target molecules .