Table 4.
Potential drug or gene therapy approaches for peripheral nerve repair and axonal growth.
| Animal model | Type of injury | Drug/gene delivery | Target evaluated | Major findings | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rat | PNI—SN crush | Cerebrolysin, dexamethasone, ascorbic acid | Neurons in SN | Improvement of behavior and histopathological changes and SN function after ascorbic acid administration. Neuroprotective effect | Elhessy et al. (2023) |
| Wistar rat | PNI—SN crush | Azithromycin | Neurons in SN | A significant effect was found in motor and sensory function | Ferdowsi et al. (2023) |
| Wistar Rat | PNI—SN crush | Nimodipine | Neurons in SN | Improvement in motor and sensory functions. The number of myelinated fibers increased. Pro-inflammatory factors were reduced. Neuroprotective effect | Al-Saedi et al. (2023) |
| C57Bl/6 mice | PNI—SN crusch | CD200R1 | SN | CD200R1 has a role in recruitment of myeloid cells in the regeneration process. CD200R1 is involved in inflammatory reactions after injury, and contributes to functional improvement | Pannunzio et al. (2022) |
| Balb-C mice | PNI SN crushed by laser microdissection | Thymoquinone (Nigella sativa) | Neurons from DRG | TQ showed neuroprotective potential in vitro | Üstün et al. (2018) |
| C57Bl/6 mice hESC, (HUES64) | The tibial nerve was crushed | Botulinum neurotoxin A | Motor neurons | Peripheral motor axon regeneration is improved in mice and neurite growth was observed after MN differentiation from hESC | Adler et al. (2022) Franz et al. (2018) |
| Wistar rat, SCs isolated from Wistar rat | Removed 10 mm of SN | VPA (valproic acid) | Neurons | SN regeneration, increase SC proliferation | Gomez-Sanchez et al. (2022) |
| Wistar rat | SN gap less than 10 mm | Polyhydroyal-kanotes | SN engraftment | Can successfully sustain cell proliferation and adhesion in vitro and nerve regeneration across a 10 mm median nerve defect in vivo | Lizarraga-Valderrama et al. (2021) |
| Neonatal, Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats | Rat model of SN transaction | Hydrogel, let-7a | SN engraftment | Let-7a antagomir promoted peripheral nerve regeneration and is a biosafety molecule for in vivo application | Chen et al. (2023) |
| Wistar rat | PNI—SN crush | adMSCs-exosomes | SN | The results showed a significant improvement in axon regeneration after sciatic nerve injury in vivo | Bucan et al. (2019) |
| P2–P3 SD rat sciatic nerves | Exosomes derived from repair SCs | SN | SC-derived exosomes to this phenotype that enhances neurite growth are dependent on the increased expression of miRNA-21 | Liu et al. (2022) |