Cerebral palsy drug may be breakthrough

A new treatment helped rabbits born with cerebral palsy to regain near-normal mobility, offering hope of a potential breakthrough in treating humans with the incurable disorder, researchers said Wednesday.

The method, part of the growing field of nanomedicine, worked by delivering an anti-inflammatory drug directly into the damaged parts of the brain via tiny tree-like molecules known as dendrimers.

Baby rabbits treated within six hours of birth showed dramatic improvement in the motor function by the fifth day of life, said lead author Sujatha Kannan of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Perinatology Research Branch. The study appears in the U.S. journal Science Translational Medicine — via redwolf.newsvine.com