Spinal Cord Injury Treatment: Cellular gene therapy
CFU scientists have proposed to use it in the treatment of spinal cord injuries
combined gene-cell method
Natalia Doroshkevich, KFU Press Service Scientists of Kazan Federal University have received positive results of treatment of spinal cord injuries with the help of a gene-cell method developed by them.
The corresponding article by CFU researchers was published on September 29 in the journal Spinal Cord (Mukhamedshina et al., Adenoviral vector carrying glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor for direct gene therapy in comparison with human umbilical cord blood cell-mediated therapy of spinal cord injury in rat).
The essence of the method is to deliver therapeutic genes and umbilical cord blood cells to the area of spinal cord injury. As a result of the experimental work carried out by scientists on rats, the animals recovered motor function.
As you know, human cord blood cells are unique in that they contain a large number of stem cells, and also have low immunogenicity and high biosafety. However, in severe injuries, such as spinal cord injuries, the natural ability of these cells to stimulate regeneration is not enough. That is why CFU scientists have created a number of unique genetic drugs that can slow down degenerative processes and stimulate the restoration of damaged nervous tissue.
According to Albert Rizvanov, professor at the Institute of Fundamental Medicine and Biology of KFU, the greatest therapeutic effect was observed when combining cell and gene therapy methods, in which therapeutic genes were embedded in cord blood cells. "Thus, the cells were not only able to stimulate regeneration themselves, but also began to produce a large number of biologically active factors, which together led to recovery after a metered spinal cord contusion injury in a rat," the scientist noted.
It is important that in addition to the therapy of spinal cord injuries, the developed gene-cell technologies can be used to treat injuries of the peripheral nervous system, neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), ischemic diseases and lesions of the musculoskeletal system.
I must say that the project also involves research teams of Kazan State Medical University and the Republican Clinical Hospital of Kazan. Articles on the research topic, in addition to the Spinal Cord journal, were published by the scientific publications Current Gene Therapy, Neuroscience, etc.
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06.10.2015