Potential applications of gene therapy to the treatment of intervertebral disc disorders

Gene therapy involves the transfer of genes to cells such that the recipien t cells express these genes and thereby synthesize the ribonucleic acid and protein that they encode, Recent investigations suggest that gene therapy may have potential applications in the treatment of intervertebral disc dis orders, particularly those associated with disc degeneration, The successfu l in vivo transfer of therapeutic genes to target cells within the interver tebral disc in clinically relevant animal models is one example of the rapi d progress that is being made, The purpose of the current review is to addr ess several important technical issues, including choice of vectors and gen e delivery strategy and the characteristics of the target tissues, which ar e relevant to future clinical applications of gene therapy for the treatmen t of intervertebral disc disorders, It already is apparent from the growing literature that gene therapy has the potential of becoming a valuable clin ical treatment mode for intervertebral disc disorders in the twenty-first c entury.