Can Enforced Behavioral Activity in Spinal Cord Injured Rats be considered as Rehabilitation Process to Accentuate Tacrolimus Treated Recovery? A nursing Care Perspective

Experimental studies using suitable animal models for spinal cord injury (SCI) help to simulate clinical conditions as observed in humans and play an important role to understand the pathophysiology of the disease and to develop effective treatment modalities. To date no satisfactory drug treatment or other methodsof interventions like physiotherapeutically related rehabilitation process havebeen designed to repair the traumatically injured spinal cord in humans. The aim of the present study is to understand the behavioral recovery that often occurs following the initial primary injury, and to develop suitable rehabilitative intervention including pharmacological agent to enhance improved sensory and motor function. Furthermore, this research intends to bring awareness among the nurses working in general wards, specialized wards, and occupational health set-ups, to understand the need to show their passion for SCI patient’s care by exploring and learning standardized and improvised rehabilitation methods to manage and practice effective nursing caring skills for SCI patients.

Tacrolimus (also known as FK506), a macrolide lactane antibiotic, was introduced as an immunosuppressive agent with virtually no side effects. Tacrolimus, a potent calcineurin inhibitor exhibits neuroprotection actions in several experimental models of central nervous system trauma, including stroke and improved neurological recovery following peripheral and spinal cord injuries. However, some side effects from oral and intravenous administration of Tacrolimus in clinical case studies have been reported which include nephrotoxicity, lung damage, various neuropsychiatric problems, neurotoxic effects such as akinetic mutism and catatonic mutism. On the contrary, in experimental studies, Tacrolimus improves the functional outcome of spinal cord injury and has an in vivo neurotrophic action whereby it enhances the rate of axon regeneration leading to more rapid neurological recovery.(Read more)