There have been human trials ongoing around the world using adult stem cells from olfactory tissues to treat paralysis caused by spinal cord injury–most famously by Dr. Carlos Lima (not that most people know it considering the media cricket chirping). In peer reviewed studies, this treatment has been found to restore some sensation to many of the patients enrolled. Now, an American human trial has begun using bone marrow. From the story:
Paralyzed Iraqi War Veteran Will Be First to Receive Adult Stem Cells to Treat Spinal Cord Injuries at TCA Cellular Therapy TCA Cellular Therapy, LLC has enrolled its first patient to participate in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first adult stem cell clinical trial to treat spinal cord injuries. Enrollee and Marine Veteran, Matt Cole was paralyzed from the chest down in a 2005 insurgent attack in Iraq. “At minimum, our team expects this therapy will provide some improvement to the patient’s motory and sensory functions with no side effects.” According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (February 2010), it is estimated that up to 311,000 people in the U.S. are living with a Spinal Cord Injury with the average health care and living expenses cost for the first year following the injury as much as $830,000 per patient.
TCA Cellular’s neurological team is led by stem cell experts Jose J. Minguell, PhD, Carolina Allers, PhD, and Gabriel Lasala, MD, neurosurgeon Gustavo Gutnisky, MD, and neurologist Srinivas Ganji, MD. The team is scheduled to treat ten patients in Phase I. “Many spinal cord injury patients have no effective treatment available at this time,” stated Dr. Gutnisky. “I’m very encouraged by the results of the pre-clinical trials and anticipate this may become a significant therapy for these patients in the near future.” Utilizing TCA Cellular’s proprietary therapy, a couple of thousand adult stem cells have been extracted from the patient’s own bone marrow, Mesenchymal Stem Cells have been separated, purified, multiplied to millions and will be infused into Cole’s spinal cord later this month. “In theory we expect the cells to repair damaged neurons,” explained TCA Cellular president, Dr. Lasala. “At minimum, our team expects this therapy will provide some improvement to the patient’s motory and sensory functions with no side effects.”
Remember, this is very early experimentation. Stage 1 is primarily intended to test safety. We are a long way from this approach entering the clinical setting, if it ever does.
Still, I find it funny–and not in the ha, ha, kind of way–that these adult stem cell stories never receive the kind of intense media attention that embryonic stem cell experiments with rats do, not to mention the on again, off again, and now, on again Geron human ESC trial. But they offer tremendous hope to alleviate tremendous amounts of suffering–and with no ethical baggage.
August 4th, 2010 | 6:07 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Vince Humphreys, Stand In The Gap, J. Robert Howell, Ayesha , Aida and others. Aida said: RT @CO2HOG: SHS: Adult Stem Cell Human Trial Begins to Treat Spinal Cord Injury http://bit.ly/afY7BK #tcot [...]
August 4th, 2010 | 6:13 pm
“Tremendous hope” is great stuff, but call me when it actually cures something.
August 4th, 2010 | 6:15 pm
Have a race..the first ones to get a para or quad out of a wheelchair wins…then you will get all the media attention you ever dreamed of…so just go do it!
August 4th, 2010 | 6:18 pm
[...] Adult Stem Cell Human Trial Begins to Treat Spinal Cord Injury … [...]
August 4th, 2010 | 6:46 pm
Rather than whine about the media ignoring your pet studies, why not conduct research or at the very least reference research that supports your contention that the media favors embryonic stem cell research? (sound of crickets chirping).
August 5th, 2010 | 8:04 am
Jeffery,
Do you need a cost-benefit analysis or a peer reviewed study to tell you whether or not that burrito you ate at 11pm last night is gonna put the big hurt on you the next morning?
That’d be like demanding a study before commenting on it to prove whether or not ESPN talking heads have been lauding the Detroit Lions as an excellent football team.
August 5th, 2010 | 10:18 am
1. Interesting that you choose THIS story, HistoryWriter, to criticize the phrase “tremendous hope.”
2. Jeffery, please don’t play dumb. It isn’t becoming.
August 5th, 2010 | 11:50 am
Well, first off, I did see this in the main stream media, and I haven’t seen much in the way of stem cell news (other than the one possible trial a few weeks back) so the claim that it’s being ignored is silly.
Secondly, adult stem cells have been used in treatment, particularly cancer treatment, for over thirty years. Bone marrow transplants are one form of adult stem cell therapy. So they are old news, except when a new use is tested, as in this case.
Third, many of the new uses for adult stem cells, particularly IPSC’s, derive from embryonic stem cell research.
Fourth, given a choice, the researchers and pharmas would far rather work with adult stem cells than embryonic just to avoid the controversy, not to mention reducing tissue rejection problems. If they’re using embryonic cells, more than likely adult cells didn’t work.
That last point parallels some animal rights activists claim that animal research/testing is unnecessary and that we have substitutes that work just as well. Lab animals are expensive and high maintenance, so any time there is an effective substitute, trust me, it will be used. People will always choose the easier and cheaper course if it works.
August 5th, 2010 | 2:39 pm
bmmg39:
“Interesting that you choose THIS story, HistoryWriter, to criticize the phrase “tremendous hope.”
Was it? Hey, I’m glad you were interested. I don’t usually get to criticize the phrase “tremendous hope” because it’s so infrequently used by capable writers.
August 5th, 2010 | 2:47 pm
So your “send” button was just on the fritz after the 18,392 or so times the mainstream media ran a story of the “tremendous promise” of embryonic stem cells. Got it.
August 6th, 2010 | 10:19 am
bmmg39: If you see no difference between “hope” (which is basically keeping one’s fingers crossed) and “promise” (which is an expectation having some basis in reason) then you have a problem with English.
Consider the difference between: “I have great hope that X will become a great pianist” and “X shows great promise of becoming a great pianist.” Got it?
August 6th, 2010 | 3:01 pm
So you’re upset that the ASCR supporters are more level-headed with their justified claims of “hope,” while the ESCR supporters go full out with their unjustified usage of the word “promise.” Huh-kay.
August 6th, 2010 | 3:07 pm
[...] Adult Stem Cell Human Trial Begins to Treat Spinal Cord Injury – “There have been human trials ongoing around the world using adult stem cells from olfactory tissues to treat paralysis caused by spinal cord injury–most famously by Dr. Carlos Lima (not that most people know it considering the media cricket chirping). In peer reviewed studies, this treatment has been found to restore some sensation to many of the patients enrolled. Now, an American human trial has begun using bone marrow…” [...]
August 7th, 2010 | 9:29 am
bmmg39: show me a “hope” that’s worth the paper it’s written on. It’s simply whistling past the graveyard. Something that shows promise, on the other hand, is based on a factual premise rather than simply on guesswork. As much as the naysayers would like to deny it, ESCR does show promise, although that promise is yet unrealized. Some adult stem cell work also shows promise. However, neither has yet produced a cure for anything, despite some laboratory and anecdotal successes. The idea that we should stop ESCR because “it hasn’t produced any cures yet” makes about as much sense as the Wright Brothers stopping their experiments because Professor Langley and his plane ended up in the Potomac.
August 7th, 2010 | 11:13 am
The evidence is all around you, HistoryWriter. Successes with ASCs come a few per month, while ESCR has languished. The mainstream media, once happy to ignore the reality, are finally beginning to come around:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/02/ap/health/main6735412.shtml
And, no, we shouldn’t abandon an avenue of research simply because it’s less successful, as I think you were trying to say with your cute little Wright Brothers analogy. but it SHOULD be abandoned if it entails the deliberate destruction of human beings, which ESCR does, no matter how strong your denial of that fact.
August 19th, 2010 | 10:50 pm
DOES THE TCA STUFF ACTUALLY WORK?
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