Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) can lead to paraplegia or quadriplegia. Although there are no fully restorative treatments for SCI, various rehabilitative, cellular and molecular therapies have been tested in animal models. Many of these have reached, or are approaching, clinical trials. Here, we review these potential therapies, with an emphasis on the need for reproducible evidence of safety and efficacy. Individual therapies are unlikely to provide a panacea. Rather, we predict that combinations of strategies will lead to improvements in outcome after SCI. Basic scientific research should provide a rational basis for tailoring specific combinations of clinical therapies to different types of SCI.

Author affiliations

1. Centre for the Cellular Basis of Behaviour, MRC Centre for Neurodegeneration Research, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, P.0. Box 39, 1–2 WW Ground, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF, UK.
2. Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, King's College London, 16–18 Newcomen Street, London SE1 1UL, UK.
3. Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California 92109, USA.
4. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Correspondence to: Fred H. Gage³ Email: gage@salk.edu

MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.