Current frontiers in spinal cord injury research: A narrative review

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe central nervous system disorder, burdening patients and society. Current treatments, such as early surgeries and corticosteroid therapy, have limited efficacy and potential risks. Moreover, rehabilitation training only offers partial recovery. This review aims to summarize the latest advances in preclinical and clinical research on cutting-edge treatment technologies for SCI, including neuromodulation, pharmacological strategies, cell therapies, surgical interventions, tissue engineering, and rehabilitation training. Neuromodulation such as brain-computer interfaces restores motor function by decoding neural signals, while epidural spinal cord stimulation combined with rehabilitation training notably enhances motor and autonomic nervous function. In terms of cell therapy, co-transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells and Schwann cells promotes neural repair, while genetically engineered neural progenitor cells enhance regenerative potential through directed differentiation. In addition, the combination of tissue engineering scaffolds and biomaterials offers new ways to repair the neural microenvironment, and hypothalamus-targeted deep brain stimulation markedly improves walking ability in patients with chronic SCI. Current SCI treatments are shifting from a single-modality approach to multimodal integration, such as combining neural stimulation with stem cell transplantation and optimizing cell functions through gene editing technologies. Further research is needed to unravel the complex pathological mechanisms of SCI, advance personalized therapies, and develop artificial intelligence-assisted rehabilitation technologies, ultimately guiding precise neural functional reconstruction and long-term recovery. Multidisciplinary collaboration and technological innovation will be the key to overcoming the current bottlenecks in the treatment of SCI.