A new method of cell therapy for stroke
Scientists have used stem cells for the first time to treat stroke
American molecular biologists have successfully used stem cells for the first time to eliminate damage in the brain structure of mice resulting from stroke, as they wrote in an article in the journal Nature Medicine (Wang et al., 3K3A–activated protein C stimulates postischemic neuronal repair by human neural stem cells in mice).
It should be read not "applied for the first time", but "applied a new technique": different options for treating stroke with stem cells have been tested many times, both in animal models and in clinical studies on VM patients.
"This study may change our ideas about what we can do and how we can help people who have suffered a stroke. If this therapy also works on humans, then we will be able to dramatically accelerate the recovery process of such patients after brain hemorrhages and other nerve tissue injuries," Jim Koenig from the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda commented on the study (in a press release from the University of Southern California Hope for reversing permanent disability from stroke – VM).
The first (see above – VM) method of treating brain injuries was developed by Berislav Zlokovic from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles (USA) and his colleagues, who managed to find the key to turning stem cells into "adult" brain cells and forcing them to migrate to the site of nerve tissue damage.
This "key" turned out to be the substance 3K3A-APC – a semi–synthetic analogue of the so–called "protein C" - one of the most important proteins of the body, which prevents blood from clotting inside the body, protects it from inflammation and mass cell death as a result of incorrect activation of apoptosis - the cellular "program" of suicide.
As Zlokovich and his colleagues found out, experimenting on mouse stem cells, this protein promotes the growth of future "blanks" of nervous tissue and their transformation into adult types of nerve cells and their assistants, which form the basis of the brain.
The main problem of this substance lies in its nature – since protein C is the strongest anticoagulant, its introduction into the brain of a stroke patient or just a healthy person can lead to fatal consequences. For this reason, Zlokovich's team had to conduct many experiments and find a mutant version of this protein, called 3K3A-APC, which would almost not change blood clotting.
After receiving this substance, the scientists tested whether it could similarly affect stem cells inside the body, causing an artificial stroke in several mice and trying to eliminate its consequences with the help of 10 thousand human stem cells and injections of 3K3A-APC.
For several months, scientists have been monitoring the process of restoring the health of animals, comparing their condition with how the mice from the control group recovered, in whose brain only stem cells were injected.
As this experience has shown, the combination of stem cells and the substance 3K3A-APC really accelerated the restoration of brain function in rodents due to the growth of new neurons and other components of nervous tissue that replaced dead cells in damaged parts of the brain. The destruction of these new cells returned the mice to a post-stroke state, which confirms that this therapy really works.
Emboldened by the success, scientists are now preparing for the second phase of clinical trials, in which they will test the work of 3K3A-APC on a larger group of animals, and also find out whether this substance is able to slow down the death of neurons after the cessation of blood circulation. In addition, Zlokovich and his colleagues have applied to conduct clinical trials on volunteers, whose successful completion, scientists hope, will pave the way for the treatment of the consequences of stroke.
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29.08.2016