Neuroinflammation after SCI: Current Insights and Therapeutic Potential of Intravenous Immunoglobulin
Abstract
Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) elicits a complex cascade of cellular and molecular inflammatory events. Although certain aspects of the inflammatory response are essential to wound healing and repair, on balance, it is thought to be detrimental to recovery by causing bystander damage and spread of pathology into spared but vulnerable regions of the spinal cord. Much of the research to date has therefore focused on understanding inflammatory drivers of secondary tissue loss after SCI in order to define therapeutic targets and positively modulate this response. Numerous experimental studies have demonstrated that modulation of the inflammatory response to SCI can indeed lead to significant neuroprotection and improved recovery. However, it is now also recognised that broad-scale immunosuppression is not necessarily beneficial and may even carry the risk of contributing to the development of serious adverse events. Immune modulation as opposed to suppression is therefore now considered as a more promising approach to target harmful post-traumatic inflammation following a major neurotraumatic event like SCI. One promising immunomodulatory agent is intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), a plasma product that contains mostly immunogl...Continue Reading
References
IVIg therapy in brain inflammation: etiology-dependent differential effects on leucocyte recruitment
Citations
Related Concepts
Related Feeds
Anxiety Disorders
Discover the latest research on anxiety disorders including agoraphobia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder here.
Autoimmune Diseases
Autoimmune diseases occur as a result of an attack by the immune system on the body’s own tissues resulting in damage and dysfunction. There are different types of autoimmune diseases, in which there is a complex and unknown interaction between genetics and the environment. Discover the latest research on autoimmune diseases here.