I wish I could tell from this if this was just promoting spontaneous recovery or for chronic recovery.
I wonder if sensory recovery and pre-motor recovery would fall into the same process?
http://www.medindia.net/news/Molecular-Therapy-for-Improved-Post-Stroke-Motor-Recovery-83986-1.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+allhealthnews+%28Medindia+Health+News%29
After the acute treatment window closes, the only effective treatment
for stroke is physical/occupational therapy. Now scientists from
Children's Hospital Boston report a two-pronged molecular therapy that
leads to significant recovery of skilled motor function in a rat model
of stroke. Their findings are reported April 20 in the Journal of
Neuroscience.
By combining two molecular therapies—each known to promote some recovery
on its own—the researchers achieved more nerve growth and a greater
recovery of motor function than with either treatment alone. One
therapy, inosine, is a naturally-present molecule that promotes nerve
growth; the other is NEP1-40, an agent that counteracts natural
inhibitors of nerve growth.
"When you put these two together, you get much stronger growth of new
circuits than either one alone, and very striking functional
improvements," says senior author Larry Benowitz, PhD, of the Children's
Department of Neurosurgery.
Strokes in humans often damage the motor cortex on one side of the
brain, interfering with skilled motor functions on the opposite side of
the body. Led by Laila Zai, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Benowitz's lab
and the study's first author, the researchers modeled this scenario by
inducing strokes on one side of the rats' brains—specifically in a part
of the motor cortex that controls forelimb movement. They then examined
the rats' ability to perform a skilled reaching task—retrieving
food—with the forelimb on the opposite side.
After 3 to 4 weeks, rats treated with both inosine and NEP1-40 could
perform the task—which required coordinated movements of the paw and
digits—with success rates equivalent to those before the stroke.
Benowitz likens the complexity of this task to a person eating with
utensils or operating a joystick.
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