cell-therapy-alsIn a recent news release, BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc, New York, NY, highlighted the upcoming publication of a case report that documents a patient treated with the company’s NurOwn cell therapy. The report appears in Muscle & Nerve and focuses on one patient diagnosed with both amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Myasthenia Gravis (MG). The results of the report indicate significant improvements in both cognitive and motor function following initial and repeat treatments with NurOwn, the company says.

NurOwn is engineered to induce autologous bone marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) to secrete Neurotropic Factors (NTF). The treatment encompasses the transplantation of these “MSC-NTF” cells back into the patient at or near the site of damage in the spine and/or muscles.

The paper, titled “Rare Combination of Myasthenia and ALS, Responsive to MSC-NTF Stem Cell Therapy” focuses on a patient, aged 75 years old, diagnosed with MG and ALS who is treated with NurOwn cells on a passionate basis, the release states. According to researchers, one month following intrathecal and intramuscular injections of the cells, the patient demonstrated significant improvement in cognition, speech, and muscle power.

A repeat injection of NurOwn was reportedly performed 6 months after the initial transplantation, to address progression of weakness and deterioration in cognition. Just as with the initial treatment, researchers say, improvements in ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R) and respiratory forced vital capacity (FVC) were observed following the patient’s second treatment. The report states that the treatment appeared safe and well tolerated, as the patient did not sustain any serious adverse events after either course of treatment.

The release notes that the results indicate repeated therapy may help maintain and enhance the clinical benefits of NurOwn cell therapy in neurological disease. The report authors hypothesize that this repeated transplantation might be necessary, “to maintain and enhance the clinical benefits of stem cell therapies…the improvement in many functional parameters suggest that the motor nerve function may have been more significantly impacted by the treatment than MG.”

Chaim Lebovitz, BrainStorm’s president, calls the report promising, “This publication is an important milestone for BrainStorm as this is the first human data on NurOwn to be published in a highly respected scientific journal.”

Preview the paper here

Source: BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics