Spinal cord injuries typically cause irreversible loss of sensation and function below the site of injury. Approximately 17,000 people living in the United States will experience traumatic spinal cord injury in any given year. Findings from a new study in mice suggest that a designer cytokine can restore spinal cord function.
Cytokines are a broad category of naturally occurring small proteins that are important in cell signaling. They are released by cells and influence the behavior of other cells. Designer cytokines are genetically engineered proteins that perform specific functions. The authors of the study engineered hyper-interleukin-6, a cytokine that has been shown to regrow neurons of the visual system.
The study involved mice that had sustained a spinal cord injury and were paralyzed. The authors of the study used viral gene therapy to induce hyper-interleukin-6 production in the animals' damaged neurons.
They found that the hyper-interleukin-6 production caused the axons of various nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord to regenerate within one week of gene therapy. Within two to three weeks post-procedure, the mice began to walk again.
These findings suggest that delivery of a designer cytokine via gene therapy shows promise as a strategy to restore sensory and functional losses after spinal cord injury in mice.