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REVIEW article

Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Neuropharmacology
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1400413
This article is part of the Research Topic Advanced Neural Stem Cell Therapies for Spinal Cord Injury View all 4 articles

The role of small extracellular vesicles and microRNA as their cargo in the spinal cord injury pathophysiology and therapy

Provisionally accepted
Kristýna Šintáková Kristýna Šintáková 1,2Natalija Romanyuk Natalija Romanyuk 1*
  • 1 Institute of Experimental Medicine (ASCR), Prague, Prague, Czechia
  • 2 Institute of Neuroscience, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Prague, Czechia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition with a complex pathology that affects a significant portion of the population and causes long-term consequences. After primary injury, an inflammatory cascade of secondary injury occurs, followed by neuronal cell death and glial scar formation. Together with the limited regenerative capacity of the central nervous system, these are the main reasons for the poor prognosis after SCI. Despite recent advances, there is still no effective treatment. Promising therapeutic approaches include stem cells transplantation, which has demonstrated neuroprotective and immunomodulatory effects in SCI. This positive effect is thought to be mediated by small extracellular vesicles (sEVs); membrane-bound nanovesicles involved in intercellular communication through transport of functional proteins and RNA molecules.In this review, we summarize the current knowledge about sEVs and microRNA as their cargo as one of the most promising therapeutic approaches for the treatment of SCI. We provide a comprehensive overview of their role in SCI pathophysiology, neuroprotective potential and therapeutic effect.

    Keywords: spinal cord injury, Regeneration, Stem Cells, Small extracellular vesicles, miRNA

    Received: 13 Mar 2024; Accepted: 16 Apr 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Šintáková and Romanyuk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Natalija Romanyuk, Institute of Experimental Medicine (ASCR), Prague, 142 20, Prague, Czechia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.