From Down syndrome to ‘near normal’?

New Delhi clinic makes stem cell claims that worry experts

A New Delhi clinic that has claimed to help paralyzed Canadians walk again by injecting them with stem cells now says it can use the same treatment to make children with Down syndrome “almost near normal.”

Nutech Mediworld says it has treated up to 16 newborns, toddlers and older children with Down syndrome.

According to its medical director, Geeta Shroff, “we have seen that patients actually start improving clinically — they become almost at par for their age.”

Canadian experts say the bold claim risks raising false expectations and public confusion, much like the nowdiscredited “Liberation” therapy for multiple sclerosis, and that it’s playing off the over- hyped belief stem cells have the potential to “cure” almost anything.

It’s also the latest controversy over stem cell tourism, and the growing number of clinics worldwide marketing pricey, unregulated and unproven treatments.

Nutech Mediworld charges US$ 5,000 to $ 6,000 per week for its stem cell- based therapies.

The clinic says it has treated such incurable conditions as spinal cord injury and cerebral palsy. Around 20 Canadians have sought treatment at the clinic for paralyzing spinal cord injuries, spending upwards of $US48,000 each.

Shroff says some of her patients have regained the ability to walk with walkers.

More recently, she began working with Down syndrome, one of the most common chromosomal disorders worldwide. Most cases are caused by a random error in cell division.

The child ends up with three copies of chromosome 21, instead of the usual two.

That extra copy causes abnormal neuronal development and changes in the central nervous system, Shroff says, leading to “persistent developmental delays.”

Human embryonic stem cells injected into a child’s muscles and bloodstream can regenerate and repair that damaged brain, she says. They also work at the genetic level, she claims.

In a single case published last year, Shroff reported treating a two- month- old baby boy in September 2014 diagnosed with Down syndrome at birth. The infant had “delayed milestones, lack of speech, subnormal understanding and subnormal motor skills,” she wrote.

After two stem cell therapy sessions, the baby started babbling and crawling, she reported. He had improved muscle tone. “He was social and was able to recognize near ones.”

“The child became almost as near normal as possible cognitively,” Shroff told the Post in an interview. Today, “he’s talking; he’s walking. He was at par with normal children on analysis.”

The former infertility specialist uses embryonic stem cells developed from a single fertilized egg donated by an IVF patient 17 years ago. According to Shroff, “We have witnessed no adverse events at all.”

The Down s y ndrome treatments, reported by New Scientist, have raised skepticism and alarm. “It’s not at all clear what cells she’s actually putting in patients,” says renowned developmental biologist Janet Rossant, senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute in Toronto.