Cerebral palsy affects about three in a thousand babies, presumably after some sort of fetal or postnatal insult to the brain, and the condition is effectively without a cure. But researchers led by Rangaramanujam Kannan, PhD, of Wayne State University in Detroit, think they may have begun early steps to a remedy, using nanotechnology.

The researchers coupled an anti-inflammatory agent, N-acetyl-L-cysteine, to nano-particles called dendrimers and tested the substance in baby rabbits exposed to a toxin in the womb, which leads to a syndrome that is a reasonable model for human cerebral palsy. Some of the exposed infant rabbits were given the nano-particle/drug combination a day after birth, while others were given the drug alone, the dendrimers alone, or saline.

On day five, they reported in Science Translational Medicine, animals treated with the combined substance were significantly better at walking and hopping than those given the other substances - and their abilities approached those of the healthy controls. More research will be needed before the method can be tested in people, but “the potential is immense,” Kannan said in a statement.

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- M.S.