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Sustained Dual Drug Delivery Of Anti-Inhibitory Molecules For Spinal Cord Injury Treatment, Thomas Wilems
Sustained Dual Drug Delivery Of Anti-Inhibitory Molecules For Spinal Cord Injury Treatment, Thomas Wilems
McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations
Regeneration of lost synaptic connections following spinal cord injury (SCI) is limited due to local ischemia, cell death, and an excitotoxic environment, which leads to the development of an inhibitory glial scar surrounding a cystic cavity. Myelin-associated inhibitors (MAIs) and chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) are major inhibitors to axon growth inhibition found within the glial scar and limit functional recovery. The NEP1-40 peptide competitively binds the Nogo receptor and partially blocks inhibition from MAIs, while chondroitinase ABC (ChABC) enzymatically digests CSPGs, which are upregulated at the site of injury. The first part of this work develops drug delivery systems which …