Allotransplantation of adult spinal cord tissues after complete transected spinal cord injury: long-term survival and functional recovery in canines

Spinal cord injury(SCI), especially complete transected SCI, leads to loss of cells and extracellular matrix and functional impairments. In a previous study, we transplanted adult spinal cord tissues(aSCTs) to replace lost tissues and facilitate recovery in a rat SCI model. However, rodents display considerable differences from human patients in the scale, anatomy and functions of spinal cord systems, and responses after injury. Thus, use of a large animal SCI model is required to examine the repair efficiency of potential therapeutic approaches. In this study, we transplanted allogenic aSCTs from adult dogs to the lesion area of canines after complete transection of the thoracic spinal cord, and investigated the long-term cell survival and functional recovery. To enhance repair efficiency, a growth factor cocktail was added during aSCT transplantation, providing a favorable microenvironment. The results showed that transplantation of a SCTs, in particular with the addition of growth factors, significantly improves locomotor function restoration and increases the number of neurofilament-, microtubule-associated protein2-, 5-hydroxytryptamine-, choline acetyltransferase-and tyrosine hydroxylase-positive neurons in the lesion area at 6 months post-surgery. In addition, we demonstrated that donor neurons in a SCTs can survive for a long period after transplantation. This study showed for the first time that transplanting aSCTs combined with growth factor supplementation facilitates reconstruction of injured spinal cords, and consequently promotes long lasting motor function recovery in a large animal complete transected SCI model, and therefore could be considered as a possible therapeutic strategy in humans.

Advances in targeted therapy mainly based on signal pathways for nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC)is a malignant epithelial carcinoma of the head and neck region which mainly distributes in southern China and Southeast Asia and has a crucial association with the Epstein–Barr virus.Based on epidemiological data,both incidence and mortality of NPC have significantly declined in recent decades grounded on the improvement of living standard and medical level in an endemic region,in particular,with the clinical use of individualized chemotherapy and intensity-modulated radiotherapy(IMRT)which profoundly contributes to the cure rate of NPC patients.To tackle the challenges including local recurrence and distant metastasis in the current NPC treatment,we discussed the implication of using targeted therapy against critical molecules in various signal pathways,and how they synergize with chemoradiotherapy in the NPC treatment.Combination treatment including targeted therapy and IMRT or concurrent chemoradiotherapy is presumably to be future options,which may reduce radiation or chemotherapy toxicities and open new avenues for the improvement of the expected functional outcome for patients with advanced NPC.

Correction:Advances in targeted therapy mainly based on signal pathways for nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Since the acceptance and publication of this article1,the authors opted to change the order of authors in the author group.The correct order of authors is:Yuanbo Kang,Weihan He,Caiping Ren,Jincheng Qiao,Qiuyong Guo,Caiping Ren,Jingyu Hu,Hongjuan Xu,Xingjun Jiang1 and Lei Wang This has been corrected in the original version.