Research breakthrough could help ALS patients
Margaret Munro, Canwest News Service Published: Monday, May 26, 2008


Canadian researchers say it may be possible to slow, maybe treat,amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- a fatal neurodegenerative disease known as ALS -- by stimulating the body's own stem cells.

A team, led by neurologist Dr. Neil Cashman at the University of British Columbia, announced Monday it has found a "safe pathway" for activating bone-marrow stem cells in ALS patients.

The idea is to use a growth-factor stimulant to increase the number of stem cells in the body, in the hope they will travel to the site of motor-neuron injury and slow down the disease's progression, says Dr. Cashman.

His team recently completed a small trial involving eight patients that showed a growth stimulant is well tolerated and can be safely used in people with ALS. Dr. Cashman says he's working to build support for a much larger trial involving ALS treatment centres across Canada to see if there is a therapeutic benefit.

If it works, Dr. Cashman says the treatment could sidestep the use of stem cells made from human embryos, which is fraught with ethical problems.

But much research is needed to find out if stimulating the body's own stem cells will work.

"It's early days," Dr. Cashman said in an interview.

The team on Monday described the recent trial of eight patients, who agreed to help evaluate the safety of Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor (G-CSF), identified as the safest possible growth factor to use in ALS patients. "We used it off-label," says Dr. Cashman, noting G-CSF is widely used to stimulate bone marrow when treating blood diseases.

The patients were infused with the stimulant over five to six days and were followed for six months, the team reports in the current issue of the journal Muscle and Nerve.

They measured what Dr. Cashman's describes as " a prominent effect" on stem-cell mobilization, and saw no adverse effects in the patients. Nor did they see any improvement, but Dr. Cashman says the study was not designed to look for therapeutic benefit.

ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that kills one in 1,000 adult Canadians. Most die within five years of their first symptom.

There is no cure for ALS, and Dr. Cashman says finding one is "a very tall order."

He believes stem-cell stimulation might help slow the death of motor neurons.

There's also hope a treatment involving lithium, which is to be tested as part of an upcoming multi-centre trial in Canada, will slow the disease, he said.

http://www.nationalpost.com:80/news/...html?id=541832

it seems as though foreign countries, anything not USA, are the ones who seem to be doing the research for als on those of us with als. and possibly getting positive results. as opposed to the research in the USA being done on thousands of mice and apparently going nowhere. even the results of lithium was known in the USA before the italian study, but there was no mention of it in any of the research being done in the usa. i guess if no mice, their lips are sealed.