PowerShell strings are just .NET strings, so you can:
PS> $x = '-foo-'
PS> $x.Replace('-', '&')
&foo&
...or:
PS> $x = '-foo-'
PS> $x.Replace('-foo-', '&bar&')
&bar&
Obviously, if you want to keep the result, assign it to another variable:
PS> $y = $x.Replace($search, $replace)