Early delivery and prolonged treatment with nimodipine prevents the development of spasticity after spinal cord injury in mice
- 15 April 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science Translational Medicine
- Vol. 12 (539)
- https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aay0167
Abstract
Spasticity, one of the most frequent comorbidities of spinal cord injury (SCI), disrupts motor recovery and quality of life. Despite major progress in neurorehabilitative and pharmacological approaches, therapeutic strategies for treating spasticity are lacking. Here, we show in a mouse model of chronic SCI that treatment with nimodipine—an L-type calcium channel blocker already approved from the European Medicine Agency and from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration—starting in the acute phase of SCI completely prevents the development of spasticity measured as increased muscle tone and spontaneous spasms. The aberrant muscle activities associated with spasticity remain inhibited even after termination of the treatment. Constitutive and conditional silencing of the L-type calcium channel CaV1.3 in neuronal subtypes demonstrated that this channel mediated the preventive effect of nimodipine on spasticity after SCI. This study identifies a treatment protocol and suggests that targeting CaV1.3 could prevent spasticity after SCI.Keywords
Funding Information
- European Research Council
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (Laureate Program)
- læge Sofus Carl Emil Friis og Hustru Olga Doris Friis’ legat
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