One afternoon actor Christopher Reeve was gracefully trotting through the vibrant show rings of the Virginia countryside. But in a split second, his horse stopped short of a jump and Reeve went cascading to the ground, partially severing his spinal cord just below C2. As one could imagine, Reeve’s life has changed in just about every way. The man who once dazzled audiences as Superman, is now paralyzed from the neck down and needs the assistance of a ventilator to breath. However, “superheros” don’t lose their magic powers that easily and Reeve is putting his strength into raising research dollars for neuroscience.
“The scientists know the path to success, but they are hampered by money,” Reeve said at the recent Spinal Cord Injury 2005 Symposium held on the University of Virginia campus. “Only 20 percent of NIH grants are funded and we need to reverse our priorities in this country. In the next century we need to look inside to find the enemy. The Defense Department can’t find this enemy, it’s inside our bodies. We need to declare war on disease, put our own collective conscious behind it and then the money will follow, the scientists will follow, and there will be a vaccination for diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and stroke.”
Reeve advocates reducing the Department of Defense budget from $39 billion to $19 billion and putting the extra $20 billion into research funding. He also points out that the insurance industry made over $780 billion in 1997, but none of it was spent on research, and that setting aside just $1 from each policy premium would raise $26 billion alone.
During the Symposium, which was held during May, neuroscientists from around the world met to discuss advances in regeneration, neuroprotective drugs, fusion, gene therapy and other possible treatments for spinal cord injuries.
“In the year 2005, I won’t be here sitting in this chair,” Reeve said. “People think I’m naive to say I’ll be walking in 7 years, but that is the challenge. President Kennedy didn’t say ‘let’s go three-quarters of the way to the moon.’ He said ‘let’s go all the way.’ This is the way we should approach all neurological problems – Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, MS, stroke, spinal cord injuries. Research in one area will benefit the others.”
During the conference, Zachary Hall, PhD, Vice Chancellor of Research at the University of California San Francisco and former Director of National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, stressed the importance of continuing to build the body of knowledge about the nervous system in order to develop new tools.
“Restoring function to these patients is a long, hard road, but even a small restoration of function can make a huge improvement in the quality of life,” Dr. Hall said. “Broader knowledge about why neurons die will translate into treatment. This is going to take partnerships between government agencies, public and private sources. We know that the adult nervous system can rebuilt itself and that gives us the spirit of hope and cautious optimism.”
John Jane, MD, PhD, Reeve’s surgeon, also commended Reeve’s efforts in raising funds, testifying in Congress and reenergizing the field of spinal cord regeneration.
“Year by year, our ability to treat these patients well improves,” Dr. Jane said. “Neurosurgery will be different next year and could be almost unrecognizable in 5 years. If neuroprotective drugs are administered in field and the patient has a stable spine when admitted, with advances in fusion, gene therapy and other treatments, then the environment for regeneration is there.”