Taking a New Approach to Spinal Cord Injury Treatment

InVivo Therapeutics Corp. engineers are designing a biocompatible polymer scaffolding device that seeds with autologous hNSCs to treat acute and chronic spinal cord injuries (SCI).

A new approach to early intervention and treatment for acute spinal cord injury (SCI) could dramatically change the way neurosurgeons treat the some 12,000 new cases of traumatic spinal cord injury each year.

InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. has pioneered a new treatment system that uses a biocompatible polymer-based scaffold to provide structural support to a damaged spinal cord to promote healing and improve recovery and prognosis.

The scaffolding, developed from a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer approved by the FDA for surgical sutures, is surgically implanted into an acute SCI lesion. When inserted within days after injury, the InVivo scaffold works by fostering neuroplasticity, the body’s ability to form new neural connections to compensate for injury, and prevent what is known as secondary injury – the scarring and other natural biological responses to trauma that contribute to paralysis. The scaffold mitigates inflammation and decreases cavitation and tissue loss. By minimizing these secondary injury processes, and by supporting subsequent repair and recovery, the body can locally reorganize toward functional recovery through the spared healthy tissue. This process, known as neuroplasticity, may result in partial functional recovery and shows proof to repair function in a trial completed with monkeys.

In addition to offering a protective, supportive environment to promote healing, the device also has use in delivering controlled release of medication, cells, and/or other agents to aid in recovery and tissue regeneration in the wake of traumatic injury. The device degrades naturally inside the body over a desired time period to maximize efficacy without requiring subsequent removal.

InVivo Therapeutics Corp. intends to commercialize groundbreaking technologies for a biocompatible polymer scaffolding device to treat acute spinal cord injuries (SCI).

This technology, the 2011 winner of the Apple Award from the American Spinal Injury Association, has already shown delivery of significant functional recovery in a pilot non-human primate study published in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods in 2010. To further its research, InVivo is currently awaiting FDA approval to launch its first human clinical study for acute SCI treatment using its proprietary scaffold. Expected to begin this year is a 10-patient pilot study. Based on these results, InVivo’s spinal scaffold technology could be widely available to the public as soon as 2013.

Also in development, the second generation of the scaffold will be an injectable, self-assembling version of the scaffold that will be able to time-release drugs and other agents locally to the SCI lesion. This version of the technology also has the potential to treat peripheral nerve injuries and other neurological conditions.

The most recent data from the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation has found some 1,275,000 people in the U.S. are paralyzed due to a spinal cord injury, and the average cost of lifetime care ranges from just slightly more than $1 million to in excess of $4 million for patients who are injured at age 25. According to the Foundation, by developing therapies for those already affected by SCI and preventing new paralysis, the U.S. could save as much as $400 billion on future direct and indirect lifetime costs.

The average age of SCI patients at the time of injury is just 40 years old, which according to InVivo CEO Frank Reynolds, points to the tremendous opportunity for InVivo’s technology to restore function and quality of life.

Currently, there is no effective treatment for paralysis on the market. The scaffolding device, once approved by the FDA, will be the only viable option to change the future of SCI patients to date.

InVivo Therapeutics Corp.
Cambridge, MA
invivotherapeutics.com