MicroRNA-29a to mitigate spinal stenosis

University of Pittsburgh researchers have developed a non-surgical approach to manage lumbar spinal stenosis by targeting MicroRNA-29a.

Description

MicroRNA are small single-stranded noncoding ribonucleic acids (RNAs) and play an important role in regulating gene expression. A MicroRNA-29a lentiviral plasmid precursor was transfected via electroporation to the nucleus of human hypertrophic ligamentum flavum tissue cells to inhibit collagen I expression to mitigate spinal stenosis.

Applications

1. Non-surgical intervention for lumbar spinal stenosis
2. Fibrosis in the heart, liver, kidney and skin
3. Knee osteoarthritis

Advantages

Lumbar spinal stenosis is the most common cause for spinal surgery in patients over the age of 65 and is a significant cause of pain and economic burden. There is a real need for effective non-surgical interventions targeting the most common cause of spinal stenosis, ligamentum flavum (LF) hypertrophy.

Research has shown hypertrophic LF tissue has lower levels of microRNA-29a levels compared to non-hypertrophic LF tissue samples from the same patient. Increasing microRNA-29a expression provides a therapeutic target to treat lumbar spinal stenosis caused by LF hypertrophy.

Invention Readiness

In-vitro studies on human cell samples showed over-expression of MicroRNA-29a using a lentiviral plasmid containing precursor sequences for MicroRNA-29a resulting in nearly half the relative gene expression of collagen I compared to untreated cells. This suggests that MicroRNA-29a suppresses ligamentum flavum hypertrophy through inhibition of collagen I expression and may serve as a therapeutic target for spinal stenosis.

IP Status

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20240026359A1