Advanced approaches to regenerate spinal cord injury: The development of cell and tissue engineering therapy and combinational treatments

Novel Strategies for Spinal Cord Regeneration

“…Thus, impact load is transferred through neurological structures [8,19,20]. The external insult is reflected in primary spinal tissue damage and neural cell death in the acute phase, while a subsequential secondary cascade of degenerative events is started [4,18,[20][21][22][23] (Figure 1). The main characteristics of primary and secondary injuries are comprised in Table 1.…”

“…Comparison between primary and secondary spinal cord injury (SCI). Created based on information from [4,18,[20][21][22][23]. It is also essential to mention that the severity of the SCI depends on whether the lesion is complete or incomplete and, if it is incomplete, what part of the spinal cord is affected (Figure 2).…”

“…The main current treatment strategies include the administration of high-dose methylprednisolone sodium succinate, surgical interventions for anatomically stabilizing and decompressing the spinal cord, and rehabilitative care. Nonetheless, these therapeutic approaches have modest outcomes, imposing the need to develop novel treatment alternatives that would considerably improve patients' quality of life [21,26].…”

“…Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles started to gather attention for treating traumatic CNS injuries [21]. For example, Azizi et al [49] prepared PLGA nanospheres loaded with the ChABC enzyme for SCI therapy.…”

“…They can regulate neurons' survival, stimulate the release of neurotransmitters and recovery of synaptic function, promote the growth and remodeling of axons, and regenerate nerve cells. Particularly, neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), neurotrophin-4 (NT-4), and neurotrophin-5 (NT-5) have been recognized for their ability to protect damaged neurons and promote neuron growth and differentiation [18,21]. Interesting studies have been reported on the delivery of NT-3 to injured spinal cord regions [64].…”