• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Gene therapy shows promise in treating neuropathy from spinal cord injuries

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
May 9, 2022
in Health
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

An international team of researchers, led by scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, report that a gene therapy that inhibits targeted nerve cell signaling effectively reduced neuropathic pain with no detectable side effects in mice with spinal cord or peripheral nerve injuries.

Martin Marsala, University of California San Diego School of Medicine

Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences

An international team of researchers, led by scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, report that a gene therapy that inhibits targeted nerve cell signaling effectively reduced neuropathic pain with no detectable side effects in mice with spinal cord or peripheral nerve injuries.

The findings, published in the May 5, 2022 online issue of Molecular Therapy, represent a potential new treatment approach for a condition that may affect more than half of patients who suffer spinal cord injuries. Neuropathy involves damage or dysfunction in nerves elsewhere in the body, typically resulting in chronic or debilitating numbness, tingling, muscle weakness and pain.

There are no singularly effective remedies for neuropathy. Pharmaceutical therapies, for example, often require complex, continuous delivery of drugs and are associated with undesirable side effects, such as sedation and motor weakness. Opioids can be effective, but can also lead to increased tolerance and risk of misuse or abuse.

Because physicians and researchers are able to pinpoint the precise location of a spinal cord injury and origin of neuropathic pain, there has been much effort to develop treatments that selectively target impaired or damaged neurons in the affected spinal segments. 

In recent years, gene therapy has proven an increasingly attractive possibility. In the latest study, researchers injected a harmless adeno-associated virus carrying a pair of transgenes that encode for gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA into mice with sciatic nerve injuries and consequential neuropathic pain. GABA is a neurotransmitter that blocks impulses between nerve cells; in this case, pain signals.

The delivery and expression of the transgenes — GAD65 and VGAT — was restricted to the area of sciatic nerve injury in the mice and, as a result, there were no detectable side effects, such as motor weakness or loss of normal sensation. The production of GABA by the transgenes resulted in measurable inhibition of pain-signaling neurons in the mice, which persisted for at least 2.5 months after treatment. 

“One of the prerequisites of a clinically acceptable antinociceptive (pain-blocking) therapy is minimal or no side effects like muscle weakness, general sedation or development of tolerance for the treatment,” said senior author Martin Marsala, MD, professor in the Department of Anesthesiology in the UC San Diego School of Medicine. 

“A single treatment invention that provides long-lasting therapeutic effect is also highly desirable. These finding suggest a path forward on both.”

Co-authors include: Takahiro Tadokoro, UC San Diego, University of Ryukyus, Japan and Neurgain Technologies, San Diego; Mariana Bravo-Hernandez, Yoshiomi Kobayashi, Oleksandr Platoshyn, Michael Navarro, Atsushi Miyanohara, Tetsuya Yoshizumi, Michiko Shigyo, Rajiv Reddy and Joseph Ciacci, all at UC San Diego; Silvia Marsala, UC San Diego and Neurgain Technologies, San Diego; Kirill Agashkov and Volodymyr Krotov, both at Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology, Ukraine; Stefan Juhas, Jana Juhasova, Duong Nguyen, Helena Kupcova Skalnikova and Jan Motlik, all at Czech Academy of Sciences; Shawn P. Driscoll, Thomas D. Glenn and Samuel L. Pfaff, all at Salk Institute for Biological Studies; Taratorn Kemthong and Suchinda Malaivijitnond, both at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand; Zoltan Tomori and Ivo Vanicky, both at Slovak Academy of Sciences; Manabu Kakinohana. University of Ryukyus; and Pavel Belan, Kyiv Academic University, Ukraine. 

# # #



Journal

Molecular Therapy

Article Publication Date

5-May-2022

COI Statement

Martin Marsala is co-founder of Neurgain Technologies, Inc. of San Diego.

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Tracking the spread of avian influenza

Genetic change increased bird flu severity during U.S. spread

May 30, 2023
Shenoy Handiru, PhD, and Engel-Haber, MD

New Jersey Health Foundation awards grants to Kessler Foundation to advance research in brain and spinal cord stimulation methods

May 30, 2023

Researchers use ‘natural’ system to identify proteins most useful for developing an effective HIV vaccine

May 30, 2023

Junk food may impair our deep sleep

May 30, 2023

POPULAR NEWS

  • plants

    Plants remove cancer causing toxins from air

    39 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • Element creation in the lab deepens understanding of surface explosions on neutron stars

    36 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • Groundbreaking study uncovers first evidence of long-term directionality in the origination of human mutation, fundamentally challenging Neo-Darwinism

    115 shares
    Share 46 Tweet 29
  • How life and geology worked together to forge Earth’s nutrient rich crust

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Biological cleanup discovered for certain “forever chemicals”

The clams that fell behind, and what they can tell us about evolution and extinction

Shedding light on the complex flow dynamics within the small intestine

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 50 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In