Skip to Content
800-533-8762
  • Careers
  • Newsroom
  • Health Care Professionals
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
UPMC
  • Find a Doctor
  • Services
    • Frequently Searched Services
    • Frequently Searched Services
      Allergy & Immunology Behavioral & Mental Health Cancer Ear, Nose & Throat Endocrinology Gastroenterology Heart & Vascular Imaging Neurosciences Orthopaedics
      Physical Rehabilitation Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Primary Care Senior Services Sports Medicine Telemedicine Transplant Surgery Walk-In Care Weight Management Women’s Health
      See all Services
    • Services by Region
    • Find a UPMC health care facility close to you quickly by browsing by region.
      UPMC in Western Pa. Western Pa. and New York
      UPMC in Central Pa. Central Pa.
      UPMC in North Central Pa. North Central Pa.
      UPMC in Western Md. Maryland & West Virginia
    • See All Services
  • Locations
    • Locations by Type
    • Locations by Type
      UPMC hospitals
      Hospitals
      Physical Therapy
      Physical Therapy
      Urgent care
      Walk-In Care
      UPMC Outpatient Centers
      Outpatient Centers
      UPMC Imaging Services
      Imaging
      Community Health Centers
      Community Health Centers
      See All Locations
    • Locations by Region
    • Locations by Region
      UPMC in Southwest Pa. Southwest Pa.
      UPMC in North Central Pa. North Central Pa.
      UPMC in Northwest Pa and Ny. Northwest Pa. & Western N.Y.
      UPMC in West Central Pa. West Central Pa.
      UPMC in Central Pa. Central Pa.
      UPMC in Western Md. Maryland & West Virginia
    • See All Locations
  • Patients & Visitors
    • Patient & Visitor Resources
    • Patient & Visitor Resources
      Patients and Visitors Resources Pay a Bill Classes & Events Medical Records Health Library Patient Information
      Patient Portals Privacy Information Shared Decision Making Traveling Patients Visitor Information
      Man uses mobile phone
      Pay a Bill
      Nurse reviews medical chart
      Request Medical Records
  • Patient Portals
  • Find Covid-19 updates
  • Schedule an appointment
  • Request medical records
  • Pay a bill
  • Learn about financial assistance
  • Find classes & events
  • Send a patient an eCard
  • Make a donation
  • Volunteer
  • Read HealthBeat blog
  • Explore UPMC Careers
Skip to Content
UPMC
  • Patient Portals
  • For Patients & Visitors
    • Find a Doctor
    • Locations
    • Patient & Visitor Resources
    • Pay a Bill
    • Services
    • More
      • Medical Records
      • Financial Assistance
      • Classes & Events
      • HealthBeat Blog
      • Health Library
  • About UPMC
    • Why UPMC
    • Facts & Stats
    • Supply Chain Management
    • Community Commitment
    • More
      • Financials
      • Support UPMC
      • UPMC Apps
      • UPMC Enterprises
      • UPMC International
  • For Health Care Professionals
    • Physician Information
    • Resources
    • Education & Training
    • Departments
    • Credentialing
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Newsroom
  • UPMC >
  • Media Relations >
  • News Releases >
  • 020525 Spinal Cord Stimulation
Media Relations
News Releases
Central Pa. News
North Central Pa. News
Contact Us
Experts
Community-Focused News
Media Kits
Media RSS
Media Relations
News Releases
Central Pa. News
North Central Pa. News
Contact Us
Experts
Community-Focused News
Media Kits
Media RSS

Chat Keywords List

  • cancel or exit: Stops your conversation
  • start over: Restarts your current scenario
  • help: Shows what this bot can do
  • terms: Shows terms of use and privacy statement
  • feedback: Give us feedback
Continue
Chat with UPMC
RESTART
MENU
CLOSE

Spinal Cord Stimulation Restores Neural Function, Targets Key Feature of Progressive Neurodegenerative Disease

For Journalists

Anastasia (Ana) Gorelova
Senior Manager, Science Writing
412-647-9966
gorelovaa@upmc.edu

Liz Reid
Manager
412-514-7866
reide4@upmc.edu

Want to Make an Appointment or Need Patient Information?
Contact UPMC at

1-800-533-8762.

Go to Find a Doctor to search for a UPMC doctor.

2023 PITT HS

2/5/2025

PITTSBURGH – A new drug-free, minimally invasive intervention targets the root cause of progressive loss of neural function in spinal muscle atrophy (SMA), an inherited neuromuscular disease. An intervention, which involves electrical stimulation of the sensory spinal nerves, can gradually reawaken functionally silent motor neurons in the spinal cord and improve leg muscle strength and walking in adults with SMA. The findings were reported by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers in Nature Medicine today.  

Early results from a pilot clinical trial in three human volunteers with SMA show that one month of regular neurostimulation sessions improved motoneuron function, reduced fatigue and improved strength and walking in all participants, regardless of the severity of their symptoms. The study is first to show that a neurotechnology can be engineered to reverse degeneration of neural circuits and rescue cell function in a human neurodegenerative disease.  

“To counteract neurodegeneration, we need two things – stop neuron death and restore function of surviving neurons,” said co-corresponding author Marco Capogrosso, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurosurgery at Pitt. “In this study we proposed an approach to treat the root cause of neural dysfunction, complementing existing neuroprotective treatments with a new approach that reverses nerve cell dysfunction.” 
Capogrosso Lab 19

 SMA is a genetic neurodegenerative disease that manifests in progressive death and functional decline of motor neurons – nerve cells that control movement by transmitting signals from the brain and the spinal cord to the muscles. Over time, the loss of motor neurons causes gradual muscle weakness, and leads to a variety of motor deficits, including for the participants in this trial, difficulty in walking, climbing stairs and standing up from chairs.   

While there is no cure for SMA, several promising neuroprotective treatments have become available in the last decade. These include gene replacement therapies and medications, both of which stimulate the production of motoneuron-supporting proteins that prevent neuronal death and that slow down – though do not reverse – disease progression. 

Studies show that movement deficits in SMA emerge before widespread motoneuron death, suggesting that underlying dysfunction in spinal nerve circuitry may contribute to disease onset and symptom development. According to earlier research on animal models of SMA by study co-author George Mentis, Ph.D., at Columbia University, surviving motor neurons receive fewer stimulation inputs from sensory nerves – fibers that return the information from skin and muscles back to the central nervous system. Compensating for this deficit in neural feedback could, therefore, improve communication between the nervous system and the muscles, aid muscle movement and combat muscle wasting. 

Pitt researchers hypothesized that a targeted epidural electrical stimulation therapy could be used to rescue lost nerve cell function by amplifying sensory inputs to the motor neurons and engaging the degenerated neural circuits. These cellular changes could, in turn, translate into functional improvements in movement capacity.  

Capogrosso Lab18The Pitt study was conducted as part of a pilot clinical trial that enrolled three adults with milder forms of SMA (Type 3 or 4 SMA). During a study period of 29 days, participants were implanted with two spinal cord stimulation (SCS) electrodes that were placed in the lower back region on each side of the spinal cord, directing the stimulation exclusively to sensory nerve roots. Testing sessions lasted four hours each and were conducted five times a week for a total of 19 sessions, until the stimulation device was explanted. 

After confirming that the stimulation worked as intended and engaged spinal motor neurons, researchers performed a battery of tests to measure muscle strength and fatigue, changes in gait, range of motion and walking distance, as well as motoneuron function. 

“Because SMA is a progressive disease, patients do not expect to get better as time goes on. But that is not what we saw in our study. Over the four weeks of treatment, our study participants improved in several clinical outcomes with improvements in activities of daily living. For instance, toward the end of the study, one patient reported being able to walk from their home to the lab without becoming tired,” said co-corresponding author Elvira Pirondini, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Pitt. 

All participants increased their 6-Minute Walk Test score – a measure of muscle endurance and fatigue – by at least 20 meters, compared to a mean improvement of 1.4 meters over three months of comparable exercise regimen unaided by SCS and a median increase of 20 meters after 15 months of SMA-specific neuroprotective pharmacologic therapy. 

These functional gains were mirrored by improved neural function, including a boost in motoneurons’ capacity to generate electrical impulses and transmit them to the muscles. Friedlander Robert

“Our results suggest that this neurostimulation approach could be broadly applied to treat other neurodegenerative diseases beyond SMA, such as ALS or Huntington’s disease, as long as appropriate cell targets are identified in the course of future research,” said co-corresponding author Robert Friedlander, M.D., chair of neurosurgery at Pitt and co-director of the UPMC Neurological Institute. “We are hoping to continue working with SMA patients and launch another clinical trial to test the long-term efficacy and safety of electrical spinal cord stimulation.” 

Genis Prat-Ortega, Ph.D., Scott Ensel, B.S., and Serena Donadio, B.S., all of Pitt, are co-first authors of the study. Other authors of the study are Amy Boos, M.S., Jacqueline Ho, M.D., Sarah Frazier-Kim, Daryl Fields, M.D., Ph.D., Lee Fisher, Ph.D., Paula Clemens, M.D., and Peter Gerszten, M.D., all of Pitt; Luigi Borda, B.S., Prakarsh Yadav, B.S., Nikhil Verma, B.S., and Douglas Weber, Ph.D., all of Carnegie Mellon University; Tina Duong, Ph.D., of Stanford University; Jacqueline Montes, P.T., Ed.D., and George Mentis, Ph.D., of Columbia University; Steven Weinstein, Mikael Eliasson, of Genentech Roche; and Karen S. Chen, of the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation.  

This research was supported by an exploratory research grant from F. Hoffmann–La Roche. Genentech, Inc. (a member of the Roche Group) and the University of Pittsburgh hold rights to IP related to this study. Marco Capogrosso, Genis Prat-Ortega and Mikael Eliasson hold patent applications that relate to this work.


Photos (click images to view high-resolution version)

First Photo
Caption: Marco Capogrosso, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurosurgery at Pitt
Credit: UPMC and Pitt Health Sciences

Second Photo
Caption: Elvira Pirondini, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Pitt
Credit: UPMC and Pitt Health Sciences

Third Photo
Caption: Robert Friedlander, M.D., chair of neurosurgery at Pitt, co-director of the UPMC Neurological Institute
Credit: UPMC

UPMC
200 Lothrop Street Pittsburgh, PA 15213

412-647-8762 800-533-8762

Patients And Visitors
  • Find a Doctor
  • Locations
  • Pay a Bill
  • Patient & Visitor Resources
  • Disabilities Resource Center
  • Services
  • Medical Records
  • No Surprises Act
  • Price Transparency
  • Financial Assistance
  • Classes & Events
  • Health Library
Health Care Professionals
  • Physician Information
  • Resources
  • Education & Training
  • Departments
  • Credentialing
Newsroom
  • Newsroom Home
  • Inside Life Changing Medicine Blog
  • News Releases
About
  • Why UPMC
  • Facts & Stats
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Community Commitment
  • Financials
  • Supporting UPMC
  • HealthBeat Blog
  • UPMC Apps
  • UPMC Enterprises
  • UPMC Health Plan
  • UPMC International
  • Nondiscrimination Policy
Life changing is...
Follow UPMC
  • Contact Us
  • Website/Email Terms of Use
  • Medical Advice Disclaimer
  • Privacy Information
  • Active Privacy Alerts
  • Sitemap
© 2025 UPMC I Affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences Supplemental content provided by Healthwise, Incorporated. To learn more, visit healthwise.org
Find Care
Providers
Video Visit
Portal Login