Biomaterial-Mediated Factor Delivery for Spinal Cord Injury Treatment

Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is an injurious process that begins with immediate physical damage to the spinal cord and associated tissues during an acute traumatic event. However, the tissue damage expands in both intensity and volume in the subsequent subacute phase. At this stage, numerous events exacerbate the pathological condition, and therein lies the main cause of post-traumatic neural degeneration, which then ends with the chronic phase. In recent years, therapeutic interventions addressing different neurodegenerative mechanisms have been proposed, but have met with limited success when translated into clinical settings. The underlying reasons for this are that the pathogenesis of SCI is a continued multifactorial disease, and the treatment of only one factor is not sufficient to curb neural degeneration and resulting paralysis. Recent advances have led to the development of biomaterials aiming to promote in situ combinatorial strategies using drugs/biomolecules to achieve a maximized multitarget approach. This review provides an overview of single and combinatorial regenerative-factor-based treatments as well as potential delivery options to treat SCIs.

Current Advancements in Spinal Cord Injury Research—Glial Scar Formation and Neural Regeneration

“…In particular, scaffolds work in conjunction with hydrogels and nanoparticles to provide compartmentalized chambers optimized for cell seating, viability, and axonal branching, facilitating axogenesis over the neural lesion [ 36 , 139 , 140 ]. They also form physical matrices for cells to adhere to, enhancing tissue aggregation and cell migration which can drastically change the behavior of transplanted or grafted cells, changing differentiation possibilities [ 141 ]. These tools are being implemented more as biotechnology improves to provide enhanced results that better translate to humans.…”

Research progress of hydrogels as delivery systems and scaffolds in the treatment of secondary spinal cord injury

“…In subacute and chronic stages, rehabilitation and medication are the main treatments ( Huang et al, 2019 ). Commonly used drugs include vitamins ( Hosseini et al, 2020 ), gangliosides, and other neurotrophic factors ( Kim et al, 2017 ; Pinelli et al, 2022 ). In addition, some of the latest treatments, such as cell transplantation and cells with scaffold transplantation therapies, are also performed in the chronic stage ( Fan et al, 2017 ; Chen et al, 2021 ).…”

Application and prospects of somatic cell reprogramming technology for spinal cord injury treatment

“…Moreover, the severity of SCI is determined by multiple factors that must be considered when determining the appropriate treatment. Using biomaterials as carriers of reprogrammed cells, viral vectors and/or small molecules can improve somatic cell reprogramming strategies to achieve optimal spinal cord repair ( Pinelli et al, 2022 ). Future work is required to devise clinical treatments for somatic cell reprogramming combined with biomaterials in vivo .…”