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Record W4415668493 · doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09647-y

Thiorphan reprograms neurons to promote functional recovery after spinal cord injury

2025· article· en· W4415668493 on OpenAlexaff
Erna A. van Niekerk, Camila Marques Freria, B. Ogan Mancarci, Kimberly M. Groeniger, Daniel Kulinich, T. A. Riley, Riki Kawaguchi, Shinpei Okawa, Tamara Vokes, E Rosenzweig, Eleni Sinopoulou, Michael J. Castle, J. Russell Huie, Adam R. Ferguson, Najla Kfoury, Alexander A. Khalessi, Paul Pavlidis, Mark H. Tuszynski

Bibliographic record

VenueNature · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldNeuroscience
TopicNerve injury and regeneration
Canadian institutionsMichael Smith Health Research BC
FundersNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and StrokeU.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
KeywordsThiorphanNeuriteSpinal cord injurySpinal cordForelimbCentral nervous systemTranscriptomeNeural stem cell

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

Abstract We previously identified an embryonic shift in the corticospinal motor neuronal transcriptome after spinal cord injury associated with successful axonal regeneration 1 . Exploiting this transcriptional regenerative ‘signature’, here we used in silico screens to identify small molecules that generate similar shifts in the transcriptome, and identified thiorphan—a neutral endopeptidase inhibitor—as a lead candidate. In a new adult motor cortex neuronal in vitro screen 2 , thiorphan increased neurite outgrowth 1.8-fold ( P < 0.001). We then infused thiorphan into the central nervous system beginning 2 weeks after severe C5 spinal cord contusions and, when combined with a neural stem cell graft, thiorphan elicited significant improvements in forelimb function ( P < 0.005) and corticospinal regeneration ( P < 0.05). Extending clinical relevance, thiorphan significantly increased neurite outgrowth in primary cortical neuronal cultures from a 56-year-old human. These findings represent a new path for drug discovery, starting from in silico screens to proof-of-concept in adult human brain cultures.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.000
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.000
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Bench or experimental · Consensus signal: Bench or experimental
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: Empirical
Teacher disagreement score0.001
Threshold uncertainty score0.005

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0010.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.000
Bibliometrics0.0000.000
Science and technology studies0.0000.000
Scholarly communication0.0000.000
Open science0.0000.000
Research integrity0.0000.000
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0010.000

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.017
GPT teacher head0.309
Teacher spread0.291 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designBench or experimental
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations10
Published2025
Admission routes1
Has abstractyes

Explore more

Same venueNature→Same topicNerve injury and regeneration→French-language works237,207→