iPSpine

Chronic lower back pain (LBP) is a leading cause of disability and morbidity worldwide. Although there are many causes of LBP, one major cause is the degeneration of the spine s intervertebral discs (IVDs). This condition makes up around 40%, or 280 million, LBP cases. This leads to an economic burden in the EU of around ~240 billion euro. Despite the large impact, patients with this type of LBP only have a few options for treatment, such as pain relief medication and physiotherapy. If these don t help, the last remaining option is invasive and costly surgery. There are no treatments yet that can stop or reverse this condition. The best potential treatment for chronic LBP is to address the pain and rejuvenate the degenerated tissue for long lasting effects.The iPSpine partners, which include both universities and companies, joined together to begin researching a new, advanced therapy for the treatment of LBP caused by disc deterioration. The aim of this project is to investigate and develop a new advanced biological therapy using a type of cell called an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC). These cells are created by re-programming fully mature cells, such as cells from your blood or skin, into spine-specific cells. Only a few mature cells are needed to create a large quantity of iPSCs. These iPSCs are then differentiated into disc cells that can repopulate the group of original cells that have degenerated. Over the next five years, the iPSpine partners want to show that iPSCs can work as a therapeutic strategy. This will start with basic laboratory research to create the cells and will continue on into a preclinical animal model. By the end of the project, the therapy should be ready for advancement to the first clinical trial in people.The iPSpine impact: iPSpine wants to offer novel technology for research in the field of advanced therapy. Using spinal disc degeneration as an example, iPSpine hopes to offer improved quality of life for millions of patients, through long-lasting reduction of LBP, reduced rates of early retirement, and socio-economic improvement.

慢性下腰痛（Chronic lower back pain, LBP）是全球范围内导致残疾与发病的首要诱因之一。尽管下腰痛的致病因素繁杂多样，但脊柱椎间盘（intervertebral discs, IVDs）退变是其核心致病原因之一，该类病因约占所有下腰痛病例的40%，即2.8亿例患者，仅欧盟地区由此产生的经济负担便高达约2400亿欧元。尽管该疾病影响深远，但此类椎间盘退变相关性下腰痛患者的治疗选择寥寥无几，仅能采用镇痛药物与物理治疗等保守手段。若上述疗法无效，仅剩侵入性且成本高昂的外科手术作为最终治疗选项，目前尚无能够阻止甚至逆转椎间盘退变的治疗方案。针对慢性下腰痛的最优潜在治疗思路，在于精准缓解疼痛并促使退变组织再生复原，以达成长期持久的治疗效果。

由多所高校与企业共同组成的iPSpine合作团队，携手开展针对椎间盘退变所致下腰痛的新型先进疗法研究。本项目旨在以诱导多能干细胞（induced pluripotent stem cell, iPSC）为核心载体，研发全新的先进生物治疗方案。此类诱导多能干细胞通过重编程成熟细胞（例如血液或皮肤来源的体细胞）制备得到，仅需少量成熟体细胞即可扩增获得大量诱导多能干细胞。随后可将这些诱导多能干细胞定向分化为椎间盘细胞，以替代并重建已发生退变的原椎间盘细胞群。在未来五年内，iPSpine合作团队计划验证诱导多能干细胞作为治疗策略的有效性：研究将首先从细胞制备的基础实验室研究起步，随后推进至临床前动物模型实验。待项目周期结束时，该疗法将具备开展首次人体临床试验的条件。

iPSpine项目的社会价值与影响：该项目旨在为先进治疗领域的科研工作提供创新性技术支撑。以椎间盘退变为研究范例，iPSpine期望通过长期缓解下腰痛症状、降低患者早期退休率以及改善整体社会经济状况，为数百万患者提升生活质量。