Oudega, MartinMartinOudegaOWEN Y. CHAOAvison, Donna L.Donna L.AvisonBronson, Roderick T.Roderick T.BronsonBuchser, William J.William J.BuchserHurtado, AndresAndresHurtadoGrimpe, BarbaraBarbaraGrimpe2025-09-052025-09-052012-0900144886https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84863814693&doi=10.1016%2Fj.expneurol.2012.06.006&partnerID=40&md5=2acf05a02b54cf10b04f372050f588f5https://scholars.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/731860After spinal cord injury, proteoglycans with growth-inhibitory glycosaminoglycan (GAG-) side chains in scar tissue limit spontaneous axonal sprouting/regeneration. Interventions that reduce scar-related inhibition facilitate an axonal growth response and possibly plasticity-based spinal cord repair. Xylosyltransferase-1 (XT-1) is the enzyme that initiates GAG-chain formation. We investigated whether intravenous administration of a deoxyribozyme (DNA enzyme) to XT-1 mRNA (DNAXT-1as) would elicit plasticity after a clinically relevant contusion of the spinal cord in adult rats. Our data showed that systemic DNAXT-1as administration resulted in a significant increase in sensorimotor function and serotonergic axon presence caudal to the injury. DNAXT1as treatment did not cause pathological or toxicological side effects. Importantly, intravenous delivery of DNAXT-1as did not exacerbate contusion-induced neuropathic pain. Collectively, our data demonstrate that DNAXT-1as is a safe neurotherapeutic, which holds promise to become an integral component of therapies that aim to improve the quality of life of persons with spinal cord injury.enfalse[SDGs]SDG3journal article10.1016/j.expneurol.2012.06.006227217702-s2.0-84863814693