Bioactive Scaffolds for Regeneration in Spinal Cord Injury

描述(申请人提供)：中枢神经系统(CNS)是一个高度复杂的特殊细胞的集合，其成功的功能依赖于有效的细胞通信，以在身体的所有组织和系统中传输信号信息。对这些细胞的损伤，无论是通过有毒分子或过程、机械应激，还是与年龄相关的/遗传疾病，都会导致这种交流的中断和随后的细胞死亡。因此，在这些侮辱之后恢复中枢神经系统功能的再生医学程序在医学界是至关重要的。然而，成人体内发育充分的中枢神经系统在丢失时再生组织和形成这些重要的新细胞连接的能力有限。在这一领域的巨大需求包括治疗脊髓损伤(SCI)以防止或逆转瘫痪，中风和神经退行性疾病的新疗法，以及恢复视神经和听神经功能的策略。新的治疗方法可以大大提高面临这些问题的个人的生活质量，并显著降低医疗保健成本。例如，仅在美国，每年就有12000人受到脊髓损伤的影响，目前约有25.9万美国人生活在脊髓损伤的破坏性影响中。中枢神经系统再生的新治疗方法将对医疗保健和患者福祉产生重大影响。在这份更新申请中，来自医学、化学和材料科学的三名研究人员提出了一项研究，以开发可用于预防脊髓损伤后瘫痪的疗法，以及一种可通过手术植入逆转瘫痪的不同疗法。这种方法涉及到使用特殊设计的分子，称为两亲性多肽，它们在脊髓中自组装成纳米纤维。这些纳米纤维携带着促进创伤组织再生的生物信号，并在几周内生物降解成无害的营养物质。具体的策略包括使用几种基于多肽的信号来模拟天然蛋白质的效果，以及传递将导致再生生长因子在脊髓中产生的基因。对于急性损伤，治疗采取可注射液体的形式；对于慢性损伤，它包括预制的凝胶植入物，在瘫痪患者移除胶质瘢痕后放置。这两种疗法都将在建立良好的脊髓损伤小鼠模型上进行测试。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The central nervous system (CNS) is a highly complex collection of specialized cells whose successful function relies on effective cellular communication to transport signal information across all the body's tissues and systems. Injury to these cells, whether through toxic molecules or processes, mechanical stresses, or age-related/genetic illnesses, leads to the breakdown of this communication and subsequent cell death. Regenerative medicine procedures to regain the functionality of the CNS after these insults is therefore of critical importance in the medical community. However, the fully developed CNS in the adult human body has limited capacity to regenerate tissues and to form these essential new cellular connections when lost. Among the great needs in this field are therapies to treat spinal cord injury (SCI) in order to prevent or reverse paralysis, novel treatments for stroke and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as strategies to recover the function of optic and auditory nerves. New therapies could profoundly enhance quality of life for individuals facing these problems and significantly reduce health care costs as well. For example, in the United States alone, SCI affects 12,000 individuals every year, and approximately 259,000 Americans currently live with the devastating effects of SCI. Novel therapeutic approaches to CNS regeneration will have significant impact on health care and patient well-being. In this renewal application three investigators, from the medical, chemical, and materials sciences, propose research to develop therapies for that could be used to prevent paralysis after spinal cord injury and also a different therapy that could be surgically implanted to reverse paralysis. The approach involves the use of especially designed molecules known as peptide amphiphiles that self-assemble in the spinal cord into nanofibers. These nanofibers carry biological signals that promote regeneration in the traumatized tissue, and biodegrade within weeks into harmless nutrients. The specific strategy involves the use of several peptide-based signals that emulate the effect of natural proteins, and also the delivery of genes that will lead to the production in the cord of regenerative growth factors. For acute injury the therapy takes the form of an injectable liquid, and for the chronic injury it consists of a pre-fabricated gel implant to be placed after removal of the glial scar in paralyzed patients. Both therapies will be tested in well established mouse models for spinal cord injury.