Photomechanical Wave-Mediated Gene Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

Even though spinal cord injury (SCI) is a major cause of disability in humans, no effective treatment has been established yet. In this review, we describe gene therapy for SCI by photomechanical waves (PMWs) that are generated by irradiating a laser-absorbing material with nanosecond laser pulses. PMWs can alter the cell membranes, allowing exogenous genes to enter the cells in the target tissue. Our treatment strategy delivers small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) to silence the expression of intermediate fi laments, which suppress axonal regeneration, into the injured spinal tissues. We delivered the relevant siRNAs into the lesion in a rat SCI model by applying PMWs, and examined the histologies and the locomotive function. Signifi cant functional recovery was observed in the rats, demonstrating the effi cacy of our PMW-mediated gene therapy for SCI.