A team of Japanese researchers from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan have discovered that stem cells taken from the brain could be used to treat spinal cord injuries. However, this successful treatment involved mice models with severe spinal cord injury; further work needs to be done to determine whether it will prove successful among human beings.
Here’s the media release from the Journal of Clinical Investigation:
One of the most common causes of disability in young adults is spinal cord injury. Currently, there is no proven reparative treatment. Hope that neural stem cells (NSCs) might be of benefit to individuals with severe spinal cord injury has now been provided by the work of a team of researchers, led by Kinichi Nakashima, at Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan, in a mouse model of this devastating condition.
In the study, mice with severe spinal cord injury were transplanted with NSCs and administered a drug known as valproic acid, which is used in the treatment of epilepsy. The valproic acid promoted the transplanted NSCs to generate nerve cells, rather than other brain cell types, and the combination therapy resulted in impressive restoration of hind limb function. The authors hope that this approach, whereby the fate of transplanted NSCs is manipulated, for example by administration of valproic acid, could be developed as an effective treatment for severe spinal cord injury.
In an accompanying commentary, Tamir Ben-Hur, at Hadassah Hebrew University Medical School, Israel, highlights the impressive functional recovery attained using this approach but cautions that further work is needed before it can be determined whether this approach will work in human patients.
Lead researcher Professor Nakashima expressed hopes that their findings will lead to the development of effective treatment for spinal cord injuries in the near future.
Says the Professor: “The body’s capacity to restore damaged neural networks in the injured… is severely limited. Although various treatment regimens can partially alleviate spinal cord injury, the mechanisms responsible for symptomatic improvement remain elusive. These findings raise the possibility that (stem cells)… can be manipulated to provide effective treatment for spinal cord injuries.”
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Stem Cell Treatment for Spinal Cord Injury – Human Trials Approved in India
06 November 2010
Health authorities in India have reportedly given the go signal for stem cell therapy trials for patients with spinal cord injuries.
Says Dr HS Chabbra, chief of spine surgeries and medical director at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC), “We have received the nod of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to carry out phase II trials using autologous bone marrow transplant in acute spinal cord injury patients.”
According to the Hindustan Times, the Center will be using stem cells harvested from the patient’s body which will then be infused to his/her spinal cord.
Thirty patients will participate in the trial according to Dr. Chabbra.
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Spinal Injury Stem Cell Therapy in New Zealand
19 January 2011
Some patients with spinal injuries in New Zealand will soon be participating in a clinical trial that will see adult stem cells taken from their nasal area and injected into the site of their spinal injuries.
The trial will involve 12 patients six of whom will have the stem cell treatment while the other six will, according to Television New Zealand (TVNZ), “will just go through the intensive rehabilitation and be the control – or placebo – group to benchmark the effects of the stem cells”.
Says Otago Medical School haematologist and cell biologist Jim Faed:
“We will be contacting GPs in bigger centres such as Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin asking if they have any people with spinal injuries on their books who may be suitable that they may want to approach, and also getting in touch with spinal injury networks.”
Noela Vallis, president of the Spinal Cord Society (SCS), is pleased that the trial is moving forward. Says Vallis:
“We are really ecstatic, it couldn’t be better news for people with spinal injuries in this country. A lot of people say we are just giving false hope – but these people are sitting in wheelchairs and already have no hope.”
According to TVNZ, similar trials were conducted in “Portugal, Italy, Japan and China on well over 100 people with few negative side-effects and varying degrees of improvement for each patient.”
The trial, scheduled in the latter part of the year, was greenlighted by an ethics committee after rejecting earlier applications.
For more stem cell therapy in New Zealand, check out our earlier post on Prof. Charles McGhee’s stem cell therapy for blind patients.
