What medical advances can we expect in 2025?

The news is often synonymous with disasters. But, if we change our glasses, we can also see great advances, scientific hopes fueled by the results of numerous researches. In the field of disability, and more generally health, 2025 heralds a harvest of medical progress, even in its infancy.

Paraplegia: walking again thanks to brain stimulation?

Swiss researchers managed to restore mobility in two paraplegic people using an innovative method: deep brain stimulation, via the implantation of electrodes in the lateral hypothalamus. This region, although associated with wakefulness and eating, also presents neurons which contribute to the recovery of walking after a spinal cord injury (SCI). Conducted in pilot form, the clinical study made it possible, by combining it with rehabilitation, to improve walking in two participants with incomplete SCI, even in the long term after stopping the stimulation. These results were published in December 2024 in the journal Nature medicine.

Gene therapy, a bringer of hope

Illustrated every year by the Telethon, gene therapy opens a new era in the treatment of rare diseases, with a concept “ingenious” : repair or replace a defective gene. At Généthon (Video: immersion in the 3 Telethon laboratories), 13 “drug candidates” resulting from his work are currently undergoing clinical trials. A first gene therapy drug is even available in the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy, to stop the disease “when it is detected in the early phase”, according to François Lamy, vice-president of AFM-Téléthon. In the late 1980s, there were only half a dozen genetic diseases for which a gene had been identified. Today, there are more than 4,000.

Cell therapy, the other big breakthrough

Cell therapy is also a source of optimism. It could be used in the treatment of many chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart failure or multiple sclerosis. This innovative method “uses the patient’s cells, which may or may not be genetically modified in the laboratory, to acquire original functional properties, before being reinjected into them”, explains the Gustave-Roussy cancer center, in Val-de-Marne.

Anti-cancer vaccines are being developed

In the treatment of cancer, scientists also talk about “medical revolution”, which we owe in particular to a technique, popularized during the Covid-19 pandemic: messenger RNA. For several years, researchers have been developing personalized vaccines based on this molecule, a copy of a portion of DNA. The principle of this therapy? Inject into the body, not the virus, but RNA molecules which will send information to the cells to attack the disease. Clinical trials on skin cancer, carried out by Merck and Moderna laboratories, have shown good results. The German and American firms hope to launch it on the market in 2025.

A promising treatment for a form of MS

If, to date, no treatment exists for multiple sclerosis, the French company Sanofi could change the situation. In September 2024, the world’s fifth largest laboratory announced that it had made it possible to reduce the worsening of MS by 31% thanks to a new drug, in phase 3 of its clinical trial. His “little” name? Tolebrutinib. If the latter is not more effective than Aubagio in reducing relapse rates in a very common form of multiple sclerosis (MS: an experimental drug has not been proven), it is however effective in the treatment of a progressive form of the disease, which is less common and which currently cannot be treated. Tolebrutinib has thus obtained “innovative drug” designation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States. This mention helps accelerate the development of drugs to combat serious diseases.

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