A new technology platform for neuro-regeneration: Next generation electroactive bioprostheses for spinal cord injury (SCI)

修复受伤的脊髓是一项具有挑战性的任务，临床医生和科学家面临着几个障碍。这是因为受伤的脊髓在受伤后几乎没有自我愈合的能力。这意味着给患者和他们的护理人员带来了许多严重和困难的后果，并给NHS带来了巨大的护理成本。可以通过手术进入损伤区域的材料的使用--特别是被称为“水凝胶”的胶状结构--在增加脊柱损伤的修复方面显示出巨大的希望。这些软材料可以由临床医生模制成损伤部位，并允许修复损伤区域的细胞，如神经细胞或血管，使其在植入物内生长。研究还表明，目前用于临床神经康复治疗的电刺激可以改善脊柱损伤后的修复和运动。然而，将软水凝胶与电刺激相结合用于治疗脊髓损伤的研究很少。该项目的目的是为开发高度复杂版本的水凝胶奠定基础，这种水凝胶可以作为设备植入患者体内，并通过电刺激增加脊柱修复。它将允许申请者(具有脊髓损伤修复背景的生物学家)与剑桥大学的工程团队一起接受定制培训计划，从而实现这一点。首先，申请者将接受使用新的数字打印方法的培训，以产生具有图案的软3D水凝胶。第一阶段的目标是在水凝胶中创建模式“引导”，帮助修复细胞沿着特定的目标方向生长，并重建被损伤破坏的脊髓的有组织结构。在第二阶段，申请者将接受生产和测试能够提供电刺激的软材料的培训。然后，来自这两个阶段的材料将被结合在一起，创造出一种能够引导修复神经细胞的生长并同时受到电刺激的混合植入物，用于输送到脊髓中。我们打算采取的方法可能会为开发一种非常先进的材料奠定基础，这种材料比目前可用的材料具有更好的修复能力。人们希望这项工作将产生一个重要的新研究领域，即开发用于修复脊髓损伤的软性和电活性植入物，并开发此类损伤的新治疗方法。

Repairing the injured spinal cord is a challenging task with several obstacles facing clinicians and scientists. This is because the injured spinal cord has very little ability to heal itself after injury. This means there are many serious and difficult consequences for patients and their carers, and a huge cost of care for the NHS. The use of materials that can be surgically delivered into injury areas- in particular jelly-like structures called 'hydrogels' - have shown great promise for increasing repair in spinal injuries. These are soft materials which can be moulded into injury sites by clinicians, and allow for repairing cells in injury areas, such as nerve cells or blood vessels, to grow inside the implant. Research has also shown that electrical stimulation that is currently used in clinical neuro-rehabilitation treatments can improve repair and movement after spinal injury. However, there is very little research that investigates combined use of soft hydrogels with electrical stimulation for spinal cord injury. The aim of this project is to lay the groundwork for development of highly sophisticated versions of hydrogels to function as devices that can be implanted into the patient and electrically stimulated to increase spinal repair. It will do this by allowing the applicant (a biologist with a background in repair of spinal cord injuries) to undergo a bespoke training programme with engineering teams at the University of Cambridge. First, the applicant will be trained in the use of new digital printing methods to generate soft 3D hydrogels which have patterns created in them. The goal of the first stage is to create pattern 'guides' within the hydrogels which will help repairing cells grow in a particular, targeted direction, and recreate the organised structure of the spinal cord that has been disrupted by the injury. In the second stage, the applicant will be trained in producing and testing soft materials that can deliver electrical stimulation. The materials from the two stages will then be combined to create a 'hybrid implant' for delivery into the spinal cord, that is capable of guiding the growth of repairing nerve cells and be electrically stimulated at the same time. The approach we intend to take could lay the groundwork for the development of a very advanced class of materials that have a better ability to increase repair than the materials currently available. It is hoped that such work will result in a major new field of research to develop soft and electrically active implants for the repair of spinal cord injury, and develop new treatments for such injuries.