Cure Spinal Cord injury Research, therapies, treatments, 2018

Update: January 2018

Background information:One of the biggest issues preventing recovery after achronicspinal cord injury is the scar that appears a few days or weeks after the injury and prevents any axon from growing away from the lesion area. One of the key scar reduction strategies involves using the Chondroitinase enzyme.

In this chapter we are also covering the therapeutic strategies that are used to neutralize growth inhibitors (often referred to as NoGo) after the spinal cord injury, and /or promote nerve growth.

The intrathecal delivery of the NoGo Trap protein delivery has shown axonal growth associated with a certain recovery of function by rats. It is reported to promote nerve sprouting and synaptic plasticity, as well as, to a lesser extent, axonal regeneration. The ReNetX company is now planning a clinical trial for cervical injury patients.

Input from Spinal Research, who initiated the project: since 2014, the CHASE-IT consortium has achieved several critical milestones by working on, and overcoming, many of the issues related to creating a safe gene therapy for chondroitinase:

-The gene for chondroitinase can now be expressed in an active form in human cells-Expression of chondroitinase in the spinal cord can now be controlled, switching it on and off using an inducible switch responsive to the antibiotic doxycycline-Treatment gives rise to improved walking and unprecedented upper limb function in clinically-relevant spinal cord injury models

-Demonstrate inducible chondroitinase gene therapy works in chronic injuries-Transfer the inducible gene therapy machinery developed in the lentiviral vector to the more clinically-acceptable Adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector-Eliminate any background expression of chondroitinase when system in the uninduced off state-Confirm chondroitinase-AAV retains comparable efficacy as chondroitinase-L

-UK:alternative delivery method for Chase. More info: here-CANADA:alternativedelivery method for Chase.-USA:studyof non-human primates.-USA: Rose Bengal Study by Dr. A. Parr (University of Minnesota). See January 2018 publication

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Cure Spinal Cord injury Research, therapies, treatments, 2018