Table 2 Traumatic and motor neuron disease of the spinal cord, and potential for stem cell transplant
Disease class | Disease/disorder | Symptoms/phenotype | Mechanism | Present treatments | Demo-graphics | Possibility for stem cell treatment | Stem cell clinical trials |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Traumatic | Spinal cord injury | Varying in extent and level of injury (as classified by ASIA scale), loss of sensation to paralysis | Traumatic injury, cell loss, axonal and myelin degeneration, cytotoxic environment | Decompression and stabilization surgeries, rehabilitation | 250,000 sufferers in the USA | Cell replacement, trophic support produced by transplanted cells, modified stem cells to secrete specific trophic factors, axonal regeneration | Geron Corp. ID# NCT01217008 [9], Memorial Hermann Healthcare System ID# NCT01328860 [10], Stem Cells Inc. ID# NCT01321333 [11] |
Motor neuron | Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis | Neurodegeneration, muscle wastage, paralysis | Upper and lower motor neuron loss, glia dysfunction, both familial and sporadic | One approved drug, riluzole | 5:100,000 | Trophic support to promote survival of motor neurons, regeneration of axons | Neuralstem Inc. ID# NCT01348451 [12], BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics, Ltd ID# NCT01051882 [13], TCA Cellular Therapy ID# NCT01082653 [11, 14] |
| Â | Spinal muscular atrophy | Childhood disease, neurodegeneration, muscle wastage, paralysis | Inherited autosomal disease, lower motor neuron loss | None as of present | 1:6,000 | Trophic support to promote survival of motor neurons, regeneration of axons | California Stem Cells Inc. [15] |
Inflammatory | Multiple sclerosis | Multisymptomatic presentation, including motor dysfunction and vision defects | Degeneration of myelin, due to autoimmune response | Steroids and anti inflammatory drug to delay progression | 250,000 in the USA | Replacement of myelin producing oligodendrocytes | Northwestern University, Hadassah Medical Organization, Jerusalem |