👩‍🔬 Polylaminin in the limelight

“Polylaminin” has entered the vocabulary of many Brazilians in recent months. The release of promising preliminary results from research involving this molecule, conducted at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), has rekindled hopes among many of finding a treatment that could allow paraplegic and quadriplegic patients to regain movement in their limbs.

The research still has years of work ahead. In January, Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa authorized the start of larger-scale clinical trials to test the molecule’s safety and efficacy, after five of the eight patients who had received polylaminin — through an injection into the spinal cord — showed improvements. One of them can now walk unaided. The other three died due to causes unrelated to polylaminin, according to professor Tatiana Sampaio, who leads the research….

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