True healers of disease
July, 12 2001
By Helen Schary
Motro
The Internet Jerusalem Post.
The Internet Jerusalem Post website:
http://www.jpost.com
Millions across America last week watched a medical miracle
broadcast on the NBC nightly news: a 19-year-old paraplegic
Colorado woman using her own legs to move again. After a car
accident last year paralyzed her from the waist down, Melissa
Holley underwent experimental surgery. She has begun to regain
feeling in her feet and legs, and slowly but surely is overcoming
the prognosis of a lifetime in a wheelchair.
The nationwide television report went on to interview the doctor
who heads the medical arm of the company which developed the
ground-breaking surgical procedure. Dr. Valentin Fulga spoke
not from the Mayo Clinic, the National Institutes of Health,
Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, or Mass General in Boston. Fulga's
company, Proneuron Biotechnologies, operates out of the industrial
park in Ness Ziona.
Developed by Michal Schwartz, professor of neuroimmunology at
the Weizmann Institute of Science, the treatment involves harvesting
the patient's white blood cells, processing them, and injecting
these macrophages into the spinal sac to regenerate severed
nerve connectors.
Professor Schwartz's ideas led to experimental surgery approved
for trials by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Last July, Holley flew to Israel to become the first person
to undergo the treatment, which was performed at Sheba Hospital
in Tel Hashomer. Neurosurgeon Nahshon Koneller, who has performed
three such operations, said, "We are talking about regeneration
of the spinal cord, which has never been recorded in the past."
The tragedy of spinal-cord injuries gained worldwide attention
after actor Christopher Reeve, best known for his "Superman"
role, was paralyzed in a riding accident. Reeve has made his
injury a springboard for publicizing the need for research in
an area of medicine which which deals with 8,000 new cases annually
in the US.
Besides the millions who saw the July 5 NBC broadcast, anyone
could see it replayed on MSNBC's Web site, which also reprinted
a Reuters news report of Holley's positive response and provided
a link to the Proneuron Web site.
Proneuron's detailed Web site opens to a nearly blank page with
a single quote from Hippocrates: "Natural forces within ourselves
are the true healers of disease." The company states that its
aim is to use "the modulation of natural mechanisms within the
body to address currently incurable disorders." The site gives
a description of the technique and references to Schwartz's
scientific publications, and calls for volunteers to participate
in the clinical trial.
The most salient criterion is that treatment must be initiated
within seven days of injury. Thus dissemination of Proneuron's
existence is crucial. In Holley's case it was her father who
stumbled across it while searching the Internet immediately
following the accident. But through media exposure, the word
has slowly begun to spread.
In February, CBS TV's Early Show interviewed Holley and Fulga.
And so in June, a Colorado youth paralyzed in a snowboarding
accident was flown to Israel to become the fourth person to
undergo Proneuron's surgery. His father said of Proneuron: "It's
the only game in town right now." While Proneuron is now in
the limelight, other Israelis strive for breakthroughs in technology,
science and medicine.
Israel is in the world's headlines daily, with killings, kidnappings,
snipers, hit teams, and suicide bombers. In the world's consciousness,
the word "Israel" has become equated with conflict and fear.
Last week The Los Angeles Times ran a front-page story titled
"War eats at soul of Israel"; The Orlando Sentinel headlined
"...Tensions simmer..." and The New York Times published "Little
'quiet' in Israel..." and "Israel affirms policy of assassinating
militants." The current New Yorker magazine features a report
about Palestinian groups returning to the irredentist slogan
of a Palestine reaching "from river to sea."
But the size of the headlines has been shrinking. Death in the
Middle East is becoming old hat. Art? Culture? Literature? Israelis
don't make those pages. Sports is linked to terrorism - for
example, this headline in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Fearing
violence, thousands refuse to participate in Jewish Olympics
in Israel." Tourism and pilgrimages are under its shadow as
well - recently in The Denver Post: "Local families reconsider
trips to Mideast amid violence."
Proneuron's greatest benefit is to offer hope to those without
hope. But a side effect is that it reminds the world that Israel
and Israelis are involved not only in hurting and being hurt,
but in using their minds and talents to help. And that some
even remember Hippocrates.
