Disc comfort: gene therapy for chronic back pain

Originally pablished by Megan Giboney, RegMedNet, on 17 May 2024

An extracellular vesicle-based gene therapy has repaired damaged intervertebral discs in a mouse model of chronic back pain.

Ohio State University (USA) researchers have developed a novel non-viral gene therapy to treat discogenic back pain, a type of chronic low back pain that results from the degeneration of intervertebral discs. Intervertebral discs function to separate the vertebrae, preventing them from grinding together, and provide a shock-absorbing effect and degeneration of these discs is responsible for approximately 40% of cases of discogenic back pain. Currently there are very few treatment options available and most rely on treating symptomatic pain rather than restoring the structure of the discs.

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