Piezo4Spine celebrates its last in-person meeting by sharing its advances in the cure of spinal cord injuries with patients: "A unique opportunity"

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Understanding spinal cord injury and, with that knowledge, providing a therapeutic solution to those who suffer from it using nanoscience and regenerative medicine. That was (and is) the objective of the Piezo4Spineproject, a project with an international consortium funded by the European Union and led by the CSIC through the Madrid Institute of Materials Science (ICMM-CSIC), which is already in its final stretch.

To share its advances, at the end of September they held a unique meeting between research staff and people with paraplegia at the National Hospital for Paraplegics of Toledo, also a partner of the project. "The meeting has been a resounding success, a unique opportunity for scientists, people with spinal cord injury of different ages, healthcare staff and family members to meet," celebrates Concepción Serrano, ICMM-CSIC researcher and coordinator of the consortium.

In the almost four years since the project began, many advances have been achieved: the consortium has managed to develop a three-dimensional graphene matrix that incorporates three different nanomedicines – that is, medicines whose size is one millionth of a millimeter – that act on some of the most important processes of spinal cord injury: mechanotransduction, inflammation and the fibroglial scar, a therapeutic matrix (3D-theramesh), explains Serrano.

"Combined with motor training, the graphene matrices are providing very encouraging results in preclinical studies in rats," celebrates the researcher, who explains that they have also developed a biodegradable electrode with which they intend to control the release of the nanomedicines at the injury site. "The coming months will serve to complete the studies and learn the true scope of the consortium's effort over these four years," she advances.

The meeting in Toledo was moderated by Elisa López Dolado, rehabilitation physician and principal investigator of the Interfaces for Neurorepair Laboratory, and Juliana Martins Rosa, principal investigator of the SESCAM team in Piezo4Spine and head of the Neuronal Circuits group. Their participation reflects the contribution of the National Hospital for Paraplegics to the consortium: linking knowledge of the mechanisms of spinal cord injury with functional assessment and care experience.

In addition to the scientific staff involved in the project, the event was also a meeting point for the most cutting-edge science in the field, as renowned international researchers participated: Michael Fehlings, neurosurgeon at the University of Toronto (Canada), recognized as an international leader in the field of spinal cord injury; Ronaldo Ichiyama from the University of Leeds (UK), a great expert in the application of epidural electrical stimulation and motor training in preclinical models of spinal cord injury; Mónica Sousa from i3S in Porto (Portugal), an international expert currently researching the keys to neural regeneration in the African spiny mouse; and Ángel Rodríguez de Lope, neurosurgeon from the Health Service of Castilla-La Mancha, "who provided a very realistic vision of the state of the region regarding spinal cord injury," Serrano details.

In addition to the scientific content, the event was more emotional: "we heard the testimony of two people with spinal cord injury, Sergio Martín, a former professional cyclist who is currently in a wheelchair after an accident that occurred while training; and Marc Ituren. "They brought reality, closeness and warmth to the meeting. Their testimonies have reached our hearts and have given us the opportunity to put a face to the people for whom we work every day," confesses the researcher.

As a final touch, the staff designed outreach activities for the youngest children, as well as for adolescents at the hospital, who learned about the project while having fun.