--- title: ‘Unprecedented’: Drug May Help Heal Damaged Spine description: The drug helped rats with spinal injuries move their back legs again canonical: https://time.com/3617766/unprecedented-drug-may-help-heal-damaged-spine/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-04T13:27:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:34:18.263Z article:section: Science og:title: ‘Unprecedented’: Drug May Help Heal Damaged Spine og:description: The drug helped rats with spinal injuries move their back legs again og:url: https://time.com/3617766/unprecedented-drug-may-help-heal-damaged-spine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: ‘Unprecedented’: Drug May Help Heal Damaged Spine twitter:description: The drug helped rats with spinal injuries move their back legs again twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 'Unprecedented': Drug May Help Heal Damaged Spine by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Dec 4, 2014 1:27 PM UTC by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Dec 4, 2014 1:27 PM UTC Researchers say they’ve developed a drug that may help heal a damaged spine — the first time anything like a drug has been shown to help. The drug works on nerve cells that are cut, sending connections across the break, and it helped injured rats move their back legs again and also gave them back control of their bladders. “This recovery is unprecedented,” said Jerry Silver, a neuroscience professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio who led the study. Right now, there’s no good way to heal a broken spine. Sometimes people grow nerve cells back, but usually not. \[…\] [_Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/unprecedented-drug-may-help-heal-damaged-spine-n261116?cid=par-time-article%5F20141002) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3617766/unprecedented-drug-may-help-heal-damaged-spine/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3617766/unprecedented-drug-may-help-heal-damaged-spine/"},"headline":"'Unprecedented': Drug May Help Heal Damaged Spine","datePublished":"2014-12-04T13:27:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:34:18.263Z","description":"The drug helped rats with spinal injuries move their back legs again","url":"https://time.com/3617766/unprecedented-drug-may-help-heal-damaged-spine/","keywords":["Science topic","drug"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3617766/unprecedented-drug-may-help-heal-damaged-spine/","name":"'Unprecedented': Drug May Help Heal Damaged Spine"}}]}] ```