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Review
. 2022 Jun 9;23(12):6460.
doi: 10.3390/ijms23126460.

Recent Advances in Managing Spinal Intervertebral Discs Degeneration

Bogdan Costăchescu  1   2 , Adelina-Gabriela Niculescu  3 , Raluca Ioana Teleanu  4   5 , Bogdan Florin Iliescu  1   2 , Marius Rădulescu  6 , Alexandru Mihai Grumezescu  3   7   8 , Marius Gabriel Dabija  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Recent Advances in Managing Spinal Intervertebral Discs Degeneration

Bogdan Costăchescu et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Low back pain (LBP) represents a frequent and debilitating condition affecting a large part of the global population and posing a worldwide health and economic burden. The major cause of LBP is intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD), a complex disease that can further aggravate and give rise to severe spine problems. As most of the current treatments for IDD either only alleviate the associated symptoms or expose patients to the risk of intraoperative and postoperative complications, there is a pressing need to develop better therapeutic strategies. In this respect, the present paper first describes the pathogenesis and etiology of IDD to set the framework for what has to be combated to restore the normal state of intervertebral discs (IVDs), then further elaborates on the recent advances in managing IDD. Specifically, there are reviewed bioactive compounds and growth factors that have shown promising potential against underlying factors of IDD, cell-based therapies for IVD regeneration, biomimetic artificial IVDs, and several other emerging IDD therapeutic options (e.g., exosomes, RNA approaches, and artificial intelligence).

Keywords: artificial intervertebral discs; cell-based therapies; intervertebral disc degeneration; intervertebral disc repair; regeneration strategies.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of intervertebral disc (IVD) pathophysiology during degeneration. Reprinted from an open access source [6].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Visual summary of the macroscopic and microscopic changes during intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). Reprinted from an open access source [24].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effects of mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MAPK/ERK) signal transduction on IDD. Adapted from an open access source [29].
Figure 4
Figure 4
(A) Schematic representations and (B) 3D-printed specimens of the artificial IVDs designed by Yu et al. Reprinted from an open access source [106].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Advantages of using exosomes in regeneration therapies. Created based on information from [9].
Figure 6
Figure 6
Schematic representation of the delivery system created by Chen et al. (a) Formation mechanism of the self-healing hydrogel with siRNA releasing property. (b) Mechanism of action against IDD. Reprinted from an open access source [116].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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