Spinal cord injury (SCI), damage to any of the 31 pairs of spinal nerves, is one of the most severe forms of injury to the body. Treatment options are negligible at best, but there is reason for optimism as companies push the bounds of medicine and technology like never before. Leading players in the space include incumbents Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), Stryker (NYSE: SYK), Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) and some promising biotechs like Spiderwort and NurExone Biologic (TSX-Venture: NRX).

The market opportunity is huge, and the humanitarian implications are even bigger for bringing a meaningful treatment to market.

In the U.S., it is estimated that about 17,500 new cases occur each year from a variety of causes, mostly serious falls and auto accidents, while globally the number of cases each year balloons to between 250,000 – 500,000. Unfortunately, restorative therapeutics are scant, resulting in approximately 300,000 Americans currently living with SCI.

While the average time in hospital acute care and rehabilitation stays have declined over the decades to 11 days and 31 days, respectively, the recovery rate has stagnated. Currently, less than 1 percent of people suffering SCI, either incomplete tetraplegia or complete paraplegia, experiencing complete neurological recovery.

Data Bridge Market Research estimates the acute spinal cord injury market at $6.83 billion in 2023, calling for 5.4% compound annual growth to reach $9.89 billion by 2030. Acute SCI is sudden traumatic injury that partially tears, bruises, or completely tears the spinal cord. Chronic SCI is the progressive or permanent interruption in the conduction of impulses on the tracts and neurons in the spinal cord. Effectively, a chronic condition is diagnosed when acute symptoms last over a year. Common symptoms of chronic SCI include pain, soft tissue contractures, bladder and bowel dysfunction, and cardiovascular dysautonomia, amongst others.

NurExone is developing a revolutionary drug platform called ExoTherapy for Central Nervous Systems conditions, starting with SCI. ExoTherapy is a novel, biological platform leveraging NurExone’s proprietary extracellular vesicle-based technology to deliver therapeutic compounds intranasally to target damaged tissues, reestablishing neural activity and reversing damage to the spinal cord.

ExoTherapy works by using exosomes to carry and biologically guide and deliver therapeutic molecules to anatomies. In the case of Spinal Cord Injury, the therapeutic cargo is short interfering RNA (siRNA) that inhibits the expression of PTEN, a protein that stunts nerve regeneration and recovery. With PTEN reduced, a healing environment is created for the body to repair nerve damage.

The technology has been proven to work in animal models. Intranasal administration of ExoPTEN (MSC-Exo loaded with PTEN siRNA) in rats with full spinal cord transection resulted in functional recovery of the rear legs and improved bladder function. After a successful Pre-IND meeting with the US Food and Drug Administration, NurExone is gearing up for the ultimate test of any new therapy, clinical trials evaluating ExoPTEN in humans.

If it sounds like something of the future, that’s because it is. Exosomes are growing in popularity – Roche and Eli Lily (NYSE: LLY) have invested about $1 billion in the tech – for their utility in carrying molecular payloads to targeted cells, easily cruising extracellular spaces and penetrating cell membranes. These are defining characteristics of exosomes, and now they are being manipulated as a next generation drug delivery platform, and NurExone is helping pioneer the industry.

Investors seemingly are starting to recognize the industry opportunity and NurExone’s position in the market. Shares of NRX are up about 50 percent in the last month, including hitting a multi-month high. 

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NurExone Biologic Inc. (TSX-Venture: NRX) Full Corporate Write-Up: Click Here.

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