Genetically modified human umbilical cord blood cells as a promising strategy for treatment of spinal cord injury

PERSPECTIVE Genetically modified human umbilical cord blood cells as a promising strategy for treatment of spinal cord injury Spinal cord injury (SCI) continues to be a pressing health and social problem. The injury leads to neuronal and glial cell death accompanied by degeneration of nerve fibers. There are currently no particularly effective treatments. SCI causes profound disability of people affected and has attracted increased attention in the international field of neuroregeneration. For the past two decades, much hope has been placed in cell therapies for the restoration of both structure and function of the injured spinal cord. Embryonic and neural stem cells, olfactory ensheathing cells, microglia-like cells, Schwann cells, mesenchymal stem cells, human umbilical cord blood cells (UCBCs) and many other cell types have been in-It has been shown that graft cells support tissue sparing, exert a trophic effect on neurons and glia, promote axonal growth, and participate in their remyelination. The current literature suggests that after SCI, cell therapy is effective at promoting neuroregeneration. However, the optimal cell type for transplantation after neurotrauma has not been determined due to differences in experimental conditions, such as localization (cervical, thoracic, lumbar), injury type (contusion, compression, hemisection, complete transection, selective shutdown tracts, etc.), the severity of the injury, methods of cultivation and preparation of cells for transplantation, time of administration after SCI, site of cell injection (site of injury, intrathecal or intravenous), the presence or absence of immunosuppression, and many other factors. It appears that researchers are guided by the general criteria when choosing a cell intended for transplantation, such as oncogenic and infectious safety, low invasiveness of the fence material , which is important for clinical use. The main limitations of stem and progenitor cell transplants in SCI are their poor survival rates and uncontrolled differentiation. Globally clinical trials suggest that the use of autologous cells, especially cells of mesenchymal origin, have a high likelihood of being effective in treatment of neurotrauma. In addition to fitting the criteria for safety and inva-siveness, transplantation studies in model systems and the results of clinical trials collectively suggest that hUCBCs are very suitable for cell therapy and warrant further research into their use for stimulation of regeneration of SCI. Previously, our group, and others, have demonstrated that hUC-BCs possess many of the properties that allow them to overcome many of the major hurdles of SCI regeneration (Figure 1). It has been demonstrated that transplantation …