Tel Aviv University injection limits nerve damage after spinal cord injury in animals

Researchers at Tel Aviv University reported on 18 May 2026 an experimental treatment that, in animal tests, sharply reduced the secondary damage that follows a spinal cord injury. The study, published in the journal Inflammation and Regeneration, was led by Dr. Angela Ruban of the Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions and the Sagol School of Neuroscience, with Dr. Yona Goldshmit and a group of students.

When the spinal cord is injured, the first blow is only the beginning. In the minutes and hours that follow, glutamate, a chemical messenger that nerve cells use to signal to one another, floods the injured area in toxic amounts. It sets off a chain of inflammation, nerve-cell death and scarring that can destroy far more tissue than the original injury. No approved treatment currently stops this process.

Rather than trying to block glutamate inside the nervous system, Ruban's team lowers its level in the blood. That draws excess glutamate out of the brain and spinal cord. In the study, treated animals had lower glutamate, less inflammation and better preserved nerve fibres and connections. They began moving better within two days, and after two months they had regained up to 80 percent of normal motor function, compared with about 30 percent in untreated animals. The findings were independently checked by a contract research organisation as part of the preclinical programme of NeuroHagana, led by Dr. Amit Benbenishty.

The therapy is a single intravenous injection that still worked when given up to eight hours after injury, so it could in principle be given by paramedics or in an emergency room. Ramot, the university's technology-transfer company, has started a commercial effort to develop it. The researchers say the approach might also help after stroke or traumatic brain injury, but all results so far come from animals and human trials have yet to be run.