In recent months we have expanded our catalog of treatment regiments with some additional advanced application methods: intra-sciatic nerve injection, intrathecal injection and intradermal injection. With these approaches we can apply various compounds, such as small molecule agents or viral particles, locally or systematically with focus on the peripheral and central nervous system (CNS). All treatments are done under anesthesia and follow local animal welfare regulations including appropriate analgesia protocols.
Intra-Sciatic Nerve Injection
The sciatic nerve consists of axons from motor and sensory neurons originating in the spinal lumbar segments L3-L5. It further provides sensory and motor neuron innervation within the hindlegs. Our injection approach enables us to deliver test items into the nerve bundle directly to manipulate somatosensory and motor circuits. The intra-sciatic nerve injection approach could be applied in different pain models or nerve conduction studies, allowing for targeted treatment, additionally the method could also be modified to target other nerves of interest.
Intrathecal Injection
For a more systematic approach into the peripheral and central nervous system intrathecal injections can be applied. This allows the injection of a test item into the subdural space of the spinal cord which leads to distribution within the whole CNS with strongest impact on the spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia, hence broad biochemical or genetic manipulation can be achieved. Oftentimes, crossing the blood brain barrier to access the nervous system is essential for treatment success, not only for neurological disorders. These advantages make the route ideal for gene therapy, as well as studies in spasticity and CNS inflammation models.
Intradermal Injection
The skin consists of multiple layers, namely, epidermis, dermis and hypodermis. Intradermal injections are shallow injections that deliver the respective substance between the epidermis and the dermis. Due to the tight and stable structure of these layers this application has the longest absorption time of all parenteral routes such as subcutaneous injections. Thus, this option represents primarily a local application possibility. In preclinical studies intradermal injections are used for local modification of sensory mechanisms, such as e.g. local analgesia; pain/itch models, inflammation or healing processes of the skin. Furthermore, the above-mentioned long absorption time can be exploited when a slow systematic distribution is desired.
Outlook
Together with our current state-of-the-art treatment portfolio including stereotactic, cisterna magna, intraperitoneal, subcutaneous and oral applications, among others, we are able to provide a broad range of delivery modes that address a great variety of experimental setups.
In the future, we will provide behavioral as well as histology data to underline the effectiveness and viability of our approaches in preclinical studies.
