Stem cells provide a new approach for the treatment of children with cerebral palsy

Copyright © iCell Bioscience Inc, Shanghai 2018-2019

Pediatric cerebral palsy is a disease that leads to permanent disability, and is usually caused by brain damage before or during childbirth. Its main symptoms are: backward development of exercise, abnormal muscle tension, abnormal posture, abnormal nerve reflexes, and speech disorders. About one in every 500 children in China has a cerebral palsy. Clinical treatment of cerebral palsy is usually based on symptomatic rehabilitation, and the effect is not ideal. In recent years, the application of stem cells in the treatment of cerebral palsy has achieved certain results, providing a new approach for the treatment of children with cerebral palsy.

Joanne Kurtzberg, chief medical officer and scientist of Robertson's clinical and transformed cell therapy program at Duke University in the United States, presided over a clinical trial of autologous cord blood therapy for cerebral palsy. This Phase II clinical trial was set up with placebo controls, cross-over designs, and grouped on a randomized, double-blind basis.

In this experiment, a total of 63 children of different types and severity of spastic cerebral palsy participated in this clinical trial. These children range from 1 to 6 years of age with an average age of 2.1 years.

Randomized clinical trials have shown that adequate doses of autologous cord blood can improve the symptoms of children with spastic cerebral palsy. The improvement in the high-dose group was 30% higher than that of natural rehabilitation with increasing age.

The results of the study suggest that appropriate doses of umbilical cord blood transfusions can help relieve symptoms in children with cerebral palsy. By further understanding and optimizing treatments, more children with cerebral palsy can be treated.

Placental umbilical cord blood is rich in hematopoietic stem cells, and hematopoietic stem cells are thought to be able to treat hematological disorders, immune system disorders, neurological disorders and hereditary disorders. Cord blood also contains other types of cells that can promote the formation of new neural connections in children with cerebral palsy.

In the trial, the researchers tested different doses of 10 to 50 million cells per kilogram of body weight based on the amount and quality of cord blood stored by each child.

A two-year clinical trial showed that when a single dose exceeds 25 million cells per kilogram of body weight, motor function of children with cerebral palsy was improved after one year of intravenous infusion of autologous cord blood.