title: Molecular immunotherapy might shed a light on the treatment strategies for disc degeneration and herniation.
abstract: Despite surgical discectomy is one of the most effective treatments for intervertebral disc degeneration and lumbar disc herniation, a number of patients still complain of reserved low back pain, sciatica and numbness post-operatively with decreased life quality. Sciatica in patients with disc herniation is not only due to mechanical compression from herniated nucleus pulposus, but chemical and immunity agents. The intervertebral disc is composed of annulus fibrosus in the wedge and gelatinous nucleus pulposus in the centre with cartilage endplate sandwiched. Similar to other immune privilege organs, human intervertebral disc is one of the biggest avascular structures with FasL expression. Moreover, FasL-Fas and TRAIL death pathways might play roles in the machinery of immune privilege of the disc. We found that down-regulated miR-155 promotes Fas-mediated apoptosis in disc degeneration. Furthermore, once exposed to human immune system, nucleus pulposus can activate multiple specific and non-specific immune responses with cellular and fluid immune cells and molecules involved. Taken together, we hypothesize that a combined molecular immunotherapy with local and systemic immunity regulators might shed a novel light on the treatment strategies for disc degeneration and herniation.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Orthopaedics, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Zhi-Heng
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yu-fei
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yong-zhao
authors.initials: YZ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhong-yuan
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Wei-lin
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Che
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hai-Qiang
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhuo-Jing
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology; D053222:Fas Ligand Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D007403:Intervertebral Disc / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055959:Intervertebral Disc Degeneration / Q000276:immunology / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D007405:Intervertebral Disc Displacement / Q000276:immunology / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological
chemical_list: C505661:FASLG protein, human; D053222:Fas Ligand Protein; C524942:MIRN155 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs