Studying methods to deliver drugs for cancer treatment and other therapies using the synthetic "copolymer micelles," the researchers at the Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indianopolis, have suggested that these tiny nanoparticles might provide a new cure for spinal cord injuries.

The micelles - which essentially are drug-delivery spheres nearly 60 nanometers in diameter - are approximately 100 times smaller than the diameter of a red blood cell; and they act as "sticking plaster" for broken nerves.

According to Purdue research team, drugs can be harbored in the cores of the micelles and ferried to diseased or damaged tissue. In addition, micelles have also been found to themselves mend the damaged axons - fibers responsible for transmitting electrical impulses in the spinal cord.

Noting that the laboratory tests have revealed that the micelles are capable of boosting the repair of damaged nerve fibre tissue by 60 percent, researchers elaborated that the outer shell of these tiny particles is made from polyethylene glycol (PEG), which happens to be a sealing agent already investigated as a probable spinal injury treatment.

Saying that the fact that micelles themselves can aid the repair of nerve fibres was a "very surprising discovery," Purdue University's Dr Ji-Xin Cheng, remarked: "Micelles have been used for
30 years as drug-delivery vehicles in research, but no-one has ever used them directly as a medicine."