THREE MORE ASTONISHING BREAKTHROUGHS
REVIVING THE BRAINS OF STROKE PATIENTS
ABOUT 150,000 people in the UK suffer a stroke every year, half of whom are left with a disability. The damage, caused by a blockage to the blood supply of the brain, can be permanent.
Now a stem cell therapy developed by Welsh biotech firm ReNeuron is proving potentially transformative. More than half of the 34 patients treated so far have noted improvements in their condition, despite being treated months after their stroke.
The treatment, CTX, involves neural stem cells grown from foetal brain tissue samples donated to a US stem cell bank. In a two-hour operation under general anaesthetic, around 20 million stem cells are injected into healthy brain tissue close to the damaged areas, releasing chemicals which stimulate the growth of new nerve cells and blood vessels.
ReNeuron chief executive Olav Hellebo said one patient, a Manchester bricklayer, who suffered a debilitating stroke, was later able to return to work.
HELPING THE BLIND TO SEE AGAIN
AGE-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of blindness.
The disease erodes the cells responsible for vision in the back of the eye and, until now, there has been no prospect of a cure.
But in March, a partnership between Moorfields Eye Hospital and University College London (UCL) restored the sight of two patients using a stem cell ‘patch’.
It was created by taking stem cells from an embryo which had been donated to research and converting them into retinal cells in a lab. The stem cells were placed in a special liquid in which they multiplied and, by a process called spontaneous differentiation, turned into various different cell types, including retinal cells. These were then placed on a tiny membrane and injected beneath the patients’ retinas.
After a year, both patients – an 86-year-old man and a woman in her 60s – went from not being able to read at all to reading 60 to 80 words a minute with reading glasses.
. . . AND EVEN A CURE FOR PARALYSIS?
SUPERMAN actor Christopher Reeve was just 43 when he was paralysed and died nine years later after campaigning for stem cell research. Now such therapies are showing significant benefits in spinal patients.
A team based at UCL, led by Professor Ying Li and funded by UKSCF, could run a clinical trial within the next year, building on work which has already seen Polish fireman, Darek Fidyka, recover his ability to walk despite severing his spinal cord.
Work is also ongoing in the US, where nearly 30 patients, paralysed following accidents, have been injected with embryonic stem cells in a bid to regenerate their spinal cords. There is cautious optimism – in one group of six patients, four gained significant function on one side of their body.