The patients’ own mesenchymal stem cells were used in the study and it was stated that no side effects were observed. It is also stated that larger clinical trials are required to prove the effectiveness of the new spinal cord treatment. Different stem cell therapies developed in recent years target spinal cord injuries.
Although tests in animals suggest that the damaged spinal cord can be regenerated, these treatments are just being tried in terms of safety and effectiveness. Promising results were obtained in the first human trials of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from human bone marrow. While MSCs were given directly to the spinal cord by invasive injections in previous studies, new research showed that it can be administered more safely and effectively by intravenous infusion.
The article published in Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery describes in detail the clinical trials of 13 cases conducted with the controversial treatment approval given in Japan in 2019. In 2014, Japan introduced a rapid approval system for the use of certain experimental regenerative drugs in special circumstances and with time limits and for which initial safety data were provided.
This stem cell therapy, called Stemirac, was criticized by international experts for its rapid approval at that time in Japan. The first results revealed in the Japanese rapid approval system offer promising signs of the ongoing root treatments. It is stated that this treatment can be effective in repairing spinal cord injuries. Despite this, robust clinical trials are lacking.
More Than Half of the Patients Had Improvement
More than half of the 13 case studies mentioned in the study reported a rapid and significant improvement in motor function. “Having similar results in stem cell therapies in patients with stroke increases our confidence in this approach. This clinical trial is the product of many years of extensive laboratory work on MSCs by our colleagues at Yale and Sapporo, ”says co-senior author Jeffrey Kocsis.
Another senior co-author of the study, Stephen Waxman, agrees with Kocsis’s view and notes that more work needs to be done to understand how much this study actually özgü on humans. While both researchers are certainly optimistic about this, they think it could take years to clear the efficacy data required for clinical trials in other countries. The new research özgü been published in the journal Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery.
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New Stem Cell Therapy Shows Promise in Spinal Cord Injuries
