Targeted therapy for intervertebral disc degeneration: inhibiting apoptosis is a promising treatment strategy.

Abstract

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration (IDD) is a multifactorial pathological process associated with low back pain (LBP). The pathogenesis is complicated, and the main pathological changes are IVD cell apoptosis and extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation. Apoptotic cell loss leads to ECM degradation, which plays an essential role in IDD pathogenesis. Apoptosis regulation may be a potential attractive therapeutic strategy for IDD. Previous studies have shown that IVD cell apoptosis is mainly induced by the death receptor pathway, mitochondrial pathway, and endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) pathway. This article mainly summarizes the factors that induce IDD and apoptosis, the relationship between the three apoptotic pathways and IDD, and potential therapeutic strategies. Preliminary animal and cell experiments show that targeting apoptotic pathway genes or drug inhibition can effectively inhibit IVD cell apoptosis and slow IDD progression. Targeted apoptotic pathway inhibition may be an effective strategy to alleviate IDD at the gene level. This manuscript provides new insights and ideas for IDD therapy.

• Authors: Xiao-Bo Zhang, Yi-Cun Hu, Peng Cheng, Hai-Yu Zhou, Xiang-Yi Chen, Ding Wu, Rui-Hao Zhang, De-Chen Yu, Xi-Dan Gao, Jin-Tao Shi, Kai Zhang, Shao-Long Li, Peng-Jie Song, Ke-Ping Wang
• Journal: International journal of medical sciences (Int J Med Sci) Vol. 18 Issue 13 Pg. 2799-2813 ( 2021) ISSN: 1449-1907 [Electronic] Australia
• PMID: 34220308 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Review)
• Copyright: © The author(s).

Chemical References

• Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins
• Receptors, Death Domain

Topics

• Animals
• Apoptosis (drug effects)
• Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins (antagonists & inhibitors, metabolism)
• Disease Models, Animal
• Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress (drug effects)
• Humans
• Intervertebral Disc (cytology, drug effects, pathology)
• Intervertebral Disc Degeneration (complications, drug therapy)
• Low Back Pain (drug therapy, etiology)
• Mitochondria (drug effects, metabolism)
• Molecular Targeted Therapy (methods)
• Receptors, Death Domain (antagonists & inhibitors, metabolism)
• Signal Transduction (drug effects)