[Research status and prospects of gene therapy in spinal cord injuries]

Gene therapy develops very rapidly during the resent years. Great prospects have been demonstrated from basic study and clinic test. However, the gene therapy in CNS is still in stage of laboratory. The research status and prospects of gene therapy in spinal cord injury (SCI) were introduced. The basic principle is to transplant certain cells genetically modified with NTFs to the site of the injuried spinal cord, then NTFs are expressed in vivo and stimulate axon regrowing. Virus vectors are usually used for gene transfer because of their high rate of transfection, and the receptor cells include fibroblast, myoblast, etc. Nowadays, gene therapy in SCI is studied in many laboratories and the problems include: 1. The ideal components of transfer gene. 2. The choice of carrier. 3. Immune reaction, and prolonged survival and persistent expression of the receptor cells in the spinal cord. If these problems could be solved, the gene therapy would become the key method in the therapy of SCI.