A novel therapy for treatment of degenerative spinal conditions

下腰痛（LBP）和慢性下腰痛（CLBP）是一种与肌肉骨骼疾病相关的常见疾病，影响老年人，是发达国家的一个主要社会和经济问题。LBP在40- 80岁的人群中更为常见。随着人口老龄化，受影响的个人总数预计会增加。在全球范围内，约有40%的人在一生中的某个阶段患有下腰痛，据估计，在发达国家，这一比例高达80%。成人的LBP和CLBP在过去十年中翻了一番，在人口老龄化中继续急剧增加，对功能能力产生重大影响，导致严重的疼痛，残疾，运动等活动限制和无法工作。管理这些疾病所造成的经济负担是巨大的。脊柱融合术是一种治疗这些疾病和脊柱不稳定的外科手术。当物理治疗和保守治疗失败时，患者的疼痛和生活质量会显著恶化。融合术包括通过内固定和骨移植物手术连接两个或更多的椎骨，减少脊柱的正常活动，这可能有助于患者感觉更好，并可能提高他们的生活质量。目前的金标准治疗使用来自患者其他部位的健康骨，但这种方法有几个缺点：增加手术时间，更高的费用，供体部位术后疼痛和发病率，以及患者骨的可用性有限，特别是对于长脊柱节段融合。多年来，供骨和各种人工生物材料（包括金属、陶瓷和聚合物）已在临床上用于改善椎体融合，提供机械稳定性。然而，它们缺乏患者自身骨骼的成骨特性。此外，在患有骨质疏松症的患者中，这些植入物难以植入足够的稳定性。目前加速骨融合的金标准移植物仍然是商业来源或从髋关节采集的自体骨移植物，或在手术中收集的自体骨移植物，但长期成功结果水平较低。我们已经开发出一种创新的方法，可以为脊柱修复提供潜在的解决方案，并提高成功的结果。使用一种专利和新颖的基于生物磁性细胞的方法，我们可以控制脊柱中骨形成的方式，从而实现脊柱融合的精确和增加骨形成。这个创新项目将使我们能够测试我们的疗法在脊柱应用上的可行性。

Low back (LBP) pain and Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP) represent a common condition linked to musculoskeletal diseases, which affect aged population and represent a major social and economic problem in developed countries. LBP is more common among people aged 40--80 years. The overall number of individuals affected is expected to increase as the population ages. Globally, about 40% of people have LBP at some point in their lives, with estimates as high as 80% of people affected in the developed world. LBP and CLBP in adults doubled in the last decade, continue to increase dramatically in the aging population, with a significant impact on functional ability resulting in significant pain, disability, restriction of activities such as sport, and an inability to work. Economic burden owing to the management of these conditions is significant.Spinal fusion is a surgical procedure to treat these disease conditions and spinal instability. When physiotherapy and conservative approaches fail, the pain and quality of life of patient can be significantly worsened. Fusion involves surgically joining two or more vertebrae through instrumentation and bone grafts, reducing the normal mobility of the spine which may help patients to feel better and may improve their quality of life. The current gold standard treatment uses sources of healthy bone from other regions of the patient, but this procedure holds several drawbacks: increased surgical time, greater costs, donor-site post-operative pain and morbidity, and limited availability of patient's bone especially for long spinal segment fusions.Over the years, donor bone and types of artificial biomaterials including metallic, ceramic, and polymers have been used clinically to improve vertebral fusion, offering mechanical stability. However, they lack the bone forming properties of the patients' own bone. Moreover, in patients suffering from osteoporosis, these implants are problematic to be implanted with sufficient stability. The gold standard graft to accelerate bone fusion currently still remains the commercial sources or autologous bone graft harvested from the hip or collected during the operation with issues of low levels of long term successful outcomes.We have developed an innovative approach which can provide potential solutions for spinal repair with enhanced successful outcomes. Using a patented and novel biomagnetic cell based approach, we can control the way bone forms in the spine enabling precise and increased bone formation for fusion of the spine. This Innovate program will enable us to test the feasibility of our therapy for spinal applications.