The potential application of gene therapy in the treatment of traumatic brain injury.
Advances in molecular biology have allowed the possibility of using gene therapy in the treatment of traumatic brain injury. The major tactics involve picking out the appropriate gene target and, by controlling its specific regional expression, inhibiting neuronal cell deaths and/or promoting neuronal regeneration. This review addresses the preliminary usage of gene therapy in in vitro experiments and in animal models to treat traumatic brain injury. The gene targets with therapeutic potentials, the vectors that can be employed to deliver the candidate genes, as well as different approaches for gene therapy are discussed in detail in this review. Despite the existence of several major obstacles to making it practical and effective, gene therapy could provide a new strategy for treatment of the traumatically injured brain.
Department of Neurosurgery, First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, No. 79 Qingchun Road, Hangzhou City, 310003 Zhejiang, People's Republic of China. alfon.sf@126.com
Fang
F
Shen
Liang
L
Wen
Xiaofeng
X
Yang
Weiguo
W
Liu
D000818:Animals; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000628:therapy*; D018390:Gene Targeting; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006801:Humans