Overexpression of the Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 1 (FGFR1) in a Model of Spinal Cord Injury in Rats.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe condition that affects many people and results in high health care costs. Therefore, it is essential to find new targets for treatment. The fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) signalling pathway has a history of being explored for SCI treatment.

The use of an adeno-associated viral vector for efficient bicistronic expression of two genes in the central nervous system.

Recombinant adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors are one of the most promising therapeutic delivery systems for gene therapy to the central nervous system (CNS). Preclinical testing of novel gene therapies requires the careful design and production of AAV vectors and their successful application in a model of CNS injury. One major limitation of AAV vectors is their limited packaging capacity (<5 kb) making the co-expression of two genes (e.