Knockdown of Nogo gene by short hairpin RNA interference promotes functional recovery of spinal cord injury in a rat model.

The specific myelin component Nogo protein is one of the major inhibitory molecules of spinal cord axonal outgrowth following spinal cord injury. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of silencing Nogo protein with shRNA interference on the promotion of functional recovery in a rat model with spinal cord hemisection. Nogo-A short hairpin RNAs (Nogo shRNAs) were constructed and transfected into rats with spinal cord hemisection by adenovirus-mediated transfection. Reverse transcription‑polymerase chain reaction and western blotting were performed to analyze the expression of Nogo-A and Growth Associated Protein 43 (GAP-43). In addition, Basso Beattie Bresnahan (BBB) scores were used to assess the functional recovery of rats following spinal cord injury. The results demonstrated that expression of the Nogo‑A gene was observed to be downregulated following transfection and GAP‑43 expression was observed to increase. The BBB scores were increased following treatment with Nogo shRNAs, indicating functional recovery of the injured nerves. Thus, Nogo-A shRNA interference can knockdown Nogo gene expression and upregulate GAP-43 to promote the functional recovery of spinal cord injury in rats. This finding may advance progress toward assisting the regeneration of injured neurons through the use of Nogo-A shRNA.