Researchers are testing an experimental drug for spinal cord injury on canine subjects. They have already found the drug to be beneficial in the treatment of mice with spinal cord injury. If the tests on dogs are successful, as researchers are optimistic they will be, the next step will be trials on human beings.

The experimental therapy is being studied by researchers from the University Of California San Francisco, and the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine. As California spinal cord injury lawyers know, not all of the damage caused after spinal cord injury is caused during impact. Some of the damage is caused after the injury, because of swelling, inflammation and chemical reactions close to the injury site, which add to the damage.

The new treatment aims to block some of those negative changes that occur after the injury. Specifically, the drug aims to block the function of the matrix metalloproteinase-9 protein, whose numbers begin to swell soon after a spinal cord injury. The drug does not actually help heal the spinal cord damage. What it does is to block the destructive process triggered by the protein soon after the injury, thereby limiting cell damage and limiting the extent of damage.

According to researchers, when the injured mice were treated with the drug, they showed remarkable recovery. The mice had been injected with the drug about 3 hours after the injury and continued to be administered the drug over 3 days.

Now, researchers will test the drug on dogs at the Small Animal Hospital of Texas A&M University. The studies are expected to continue over the next 2 years. If the drug proves to be as beneficial in reducing the signs of paralysis after a spinal cord injury in dogs as in mice, the researchers are likely to begin testing the drug on human bein