Title: Immunotherapy; a ground-breaking remedy for spinal cord injury with stumbling blocks: An overview

Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a debilitating disorder with no known standard and effective treatment. Despite its ability to exacerbate SCI sequel by accelerating auto-reactive immune cells, an immune response is also considered essential to the healing process. Therefore, immunotherapeutic strategies targeting spinal cord injuries may benefit from the dual nature of immune responses. An increasing body of research suggests that immunization against myelin inhibitors can promote axon remyelination after SCI. However, despite advancements in our understanding of neuroimmune responses, immunoregulation-based therapeutic strategies have yet to receive widespread acceptance. Therefore, it is a prerequisite to enhance the understanding of immune regulation to ensure the safety and efficacy of immunotherapeutic treatments. The objective of the present study was to provide an overview of previous studies regarding the advantages and limitations of immunotherapeutic strategies for functional recovery after spinal cord injury, especially in light of limiting factors related to DNA and cell-based vaccination strategies by providing a novel prospect to lay the foundation for future studies that will help devise a safe and effective treatment for spinal cord injury.

Enhanced axon outgrowth of spinal motor neurons in co-culturing with dorsal root ganglions antagonizes the growth inhibitory environment

“…In spite of the progress in cells transplantation, it still faces the difficulty in long distance of axonal elongation, glial scar barrier and local inhibitory environment, which ought to be carefully considered before the goal of functional connectivity can be achieved [ 4 ]. Numerous efforts have been undertaken to date targeting the myelin associated inhibitors (MAIs) and receptors [ [4] , [5] , [6] ], inhibitory components of the glial scar (e.g. chondroitin sulphate proteoglycans, CSPG) [ 7 , 8 ], as well as pathological conditions (excitotoxicity, lipid peroxidation, inflammation and edema, etc.)…”

Immunoregulation of Glia after spinal cord injury: a bibliometric analysis

“…Immunoregulation after SCI is a complex and critical process involving multiple cellular and molecular interactions that are essential for the repair of SCI ( 7 , 8 ). The immunomodulatory effects of SCI are mainly in the modulation of inflammatory responses, immune cell regulation, and neuroprotection ( 9 ).…”

Improving Efficiency of Direct Pro-Neural Reprogramming: Much-Needed Aid for Neuroregeneration in Spinal Cord Injury

“…Therefore, in our narrative review, we only focus on directly reprogrammed neural cells (drNPCs) and approaches to increase the efficiency of direct pro-neural reprogramming. We leave other therapeutic approaches to SCI, for example, immunotherapy [6], the use of tissue-engineered scaffolds (TES), and animal models of SCI recently reviewed elsewhere beyond the scope of the current review. Our work fills several critical gaps in knowledge, namely, (1) it briefly overviews the most recent literature on the use of reprogrammed cells for SCI, (2) summarizes existing approaches to enhance direct reprogramming to pro-neuronal lineage, and (3) proposes several possible approaches yet to be tested.…”