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UCSD To Test Safety of Spinal Stem Cell Injection

Posted by samzenpus on from the learning-to-walk-again dept.

An anonymous reader writes Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have launched a clinical trial to investigate the safety of neural stem cell transplantation in patients with chronic spinal cord injuries. This Phase I clinical trial is recruiting eight patients for the 5-year study. Pre-clinical studies of these cells by Ciacci and Martin Marsala, MD, at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, showed that these grafted neural stem cells improved motor function in spinal cord injured rats with minimal side effects indicating that human clinical trials are now warranted.

4 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Worst that could happen? by TWX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A teacher of mine was a quadriplegic, minor arm movement, but no fingers/hands, and nothing in the lower half of his body.

    Beyond this treatment actually sickening and/or killing the patient, what is the worst that could happen, from a safety point of view? I know that's in-part the point of the study, but many of those individuals that are this badly injured (or worse, no motion below the neck would probably gladly trade the risk of death for getting their bodies to work again.

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    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    1. Re:Worst that could happen? by currently_awake · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You might prevent a future treatment that actually works. I believe that horribly injured/dying with no cure possible should be allowed to "experiment" with anything that has the slightest chance of working, with informed consent.

    2. Re:Worst that could happen? by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm guessing you don't have a spinal cord injury, because if you did then you'd be happy with just about anything that could improve it. Since in a lot of cases, those pain centres are already "on." I'm still debating on getting a baclofen pump, that dumps the crap right into my spinal fluid. I already passed on the spinal fusion, since the failure rate and chance of being a paraplegic or parapligic was 53%

      As for worse? Well death is always a possibility too, but we're already heading down that road. The only question is when you get there and how.

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      Om, nomnomnom...
  2. Upbeat about this trial by tpjunkie · · Score: 4, Informative

    I own stock in the company conducting the trial (AMEX: CUR), and this phase I study is really more of a formality, as they have finished injections in the cervical and lumbar spine for a phase IIB study using the same stem cells in ALS patients; thus far the safety profile has been excellent (efficacy hasn't been rigorously looked at yet, but the initial results are promising). The results in rat models for spinal cord injury were very impressive, if this stuff translates it'll be a real game changer...I've read most of their published data so far and everything looks legit.