U.S. allows first test of human stem cell therapy http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE50M4A720090123
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Food and Drug Administration has cleared the way for the world's first study of human embryonic stem cell therapy, Geron said on Friday.
The California biotechnology company plans to start a clinical trial to try to use the stem cells to regrow nerve tissue in patients with acute spinal cord injury.
"This marks the beginning of what is potentially a new chapter in medical therapeutics -- one that reaches beyond pills to a new level of healing: the restoration of organ and tissue function achieved by the injection of healthy replacement cells," Geron Chief Executive Thomas Okarma said in a statement.
Michael J. Fox has been trying to get Congress to approve this for Parkinson's for years. Hopefully this research and therapy can help Alzheimer's too.
Well yes I hope that this kind of research can continue. From what I heard however, Stem Cells may not help with AD. Not sure of the reasons, but I'm going to look into that as it may be possible now that more research will be done.
Guy, there are a lot of people who think that stem cell therapy cannot work for AD. One of the problems has to do with the nature of the disorder -- damage is very diffuse, spread throughout the brain, so how would one deliver the stem cells? Treating an acute spinal cord injury would be much easier. Even treating Parkinson's would be easier, since the damage is more localized.
However, there are many different ways to go about stem cell therapy (e.g., doing something to activate stem cells that are already in place, but "dormant"), and I have a serious allergy to people who pronounce that something is "impossible" when it's never been fully explored.
Most studies that I've found have involved animal models, typically mice. These have been encouraging, but as you know, the mouse model does not fully mimic the human brain when it comes to AD.
I was looking into the current status of stem cell therapy for AD a couple of months ago, and exchanged emails with a prof who works in this area. He explained the reasons why treating AD would be more difficult a little better than I have (he was the one who said Parkinson's would be an easier target) ... but durned if I can find his email right now.
Anyway, I think it's terribly exciting that approval has been given for the spinal injury study. Progress!!!
One thing those for embryonic stem cell research seem to minimize is that it has been going on all along. They just have not received federal funds to help - which did not stop them from doing it. Federal funds will not make a huge difference -IMO. From all my reading they have found that stem cells from adults and the umbilical cord work just as well.