in India.

Anyone closer to this who can comment, Girija, do you have any knowledge of this or the people involved ?

Neil.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/D...ow/4132792.cms


Stem cell hope for neuro patients
15 Feb 2009, 2230 hrs IST, Risha Chitlangia, TNN

NEW DELHI: There may be life beyond dopamine therapy for the six crore-odd Parkinson's patients in the
country.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has recently started stem cell trials for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and the neurology department has enrolled five patients for it. Though in the nascent stages, experts say stem cell treatment is likely to be the preferred treatment mode for neurological disorders like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and the lot in the near future. Stem cell therapy in fact was the recurrent theme in the 2nd Asian and Oceanian Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorder Congress and the 7th Asia Pacific Parkinson's Association (APPA) organised by AIIMS neurology department on Sunday.

Warning about that website, it is full of pop up ads. Be sure you pop up blocker is set.

India is where they paraded Andrew Kissana in front of the media last year after his "amazing" stem cell treatment, they made it sound wonderful. He dropped out of the limelight almost immediately thereafter and I cannot find a single update on him. Trust me, we have looked. I think that if he were doing even remotely well after his stem cell treatment there, I could find something. But there is nothing that we can find.

Texas A&M has teamed up with Scott and White in Temple, Texas to begin adult stem cell trials-this news was posted about here not too long ago. Trials for diabetes are set to begin this fall with PD and other diseases coming thereafter. No doubt other places within the US will also begin to do the same. I would be careful of countries offering "treatments" like this, particularly when the same treatment was heralded just last year after surgery but then we have heard nothing since. Like one of my friends told me (she has a PhD in molecular physiology, and is no dummy): "you have no idea what they are putting into you when you go abroad." Unless you take your neuro with you, it's a complete gable, and who can afford either of these?

Thanks for posting this, though, I'll be watching and waiting from the sides.

it all seems a bit early and I am sceptical as to the chances of success.

My fear is that it will fail, bad news for the trialists, and this failure could then be seized on by stem cell opponents.

That would do none of us any good.

Neil.

Hi Neil,
Yes I have heard about it while I was in India and did my investigation. AIIMS is a highly reputed med school and hospital in India. I am sure whatever they do is up to international standards. That is not a concern in places like AIIMS. So you may ask me, why didnt I go for the treatment? This treatment is in its early stages. I dont believe that bone marrow stem cell-based therapy provides a total cure for PD (yet). First of all, it is hard to get bone marrow stem cells to differentiate into fully functional neuronal cells, even if that is achieved, after transplantation, these cells dont live long enough in the brain. Whatever is killing the neurons and causing PD is still at work. Since I am a young onset PD patient I would have to go for many "refills" in my lifetime!!
Sorry its a long answer to a short question!
But if they come up with a way to keep cells alive for a long time, I would be heading back to India immediately!


"India is where they paraded Andrew Kissana in front of the media last year after his "amazing" stem cell treatment, they made it sound wonderful. He dropped out of the limelight almost immediately thereafter and I cannot find a single update on him. Trust me, we have looked. I think that if he were doing even remotely well after his stem cell treatment there, I could find something. But there is nothing that we can find."

Here is what I know about Kissana. He is doing well and chose not to be in public eye and the hospital respected his wish. I believe the team that worked on the stem cells moved to a big pharma/industry and hence there are no new trials. This information is not verified, I just heard about it.

Just to answer Lurking for cure: I understand your doubts about the system you may not be familiar with. I came to USA 25 years ago from India and been thru school, worked in academia and industry. I spent two years (2006-8) in India setting up and working in a research facility associated with a hospital and was quite impressed with the hospitals I visited (high end and reputed ones) and their research programs. Some of labs are better than the ones I have seen here! So India changed a lot these days, believe me!

girija

an informed, and interesting reply as always.

Neil.

Thanks, and I meant no offense at all, just expressing concern that no one flock to another country without some serious consideration. We have all heard the horror stories.

As for Kissana, really, he should step up to the plate and help his fellow PDers so they, too, can benefit from the treatment or at least make a decision as to whether it might help them. He could easily share the most basic of information without revealing any personal information and that could go a long way towards helping others. My opinion, of course, and we all know what that's worth!

For those considering stem cells now, there is also another facility in Germany that has been discussed on this forum. Still another one is Costa Rica, I think, and there may be others. I think these have all been discussed at one time or another here on the forum.

"Groundbreaking Paper Publishes Long Term Results of a Successful Phase I Clinical Trial Using Autologous Neural Stem Cells to Treat Parkinson's Disease."

Levesque says:

"Our paper describes how we were able to isolate patient-derived neural stem cells, multiply them in vitro and ultimately differentiate them to produce mature neurons before they are reintroduced into the brain's basal ganglia. This is performed without the patient requiring immunosuppressants. Of particular note are the striking results this study yielded -- for the five years following the procedure the patient's motor scales improved by over 80% for at least 36 months. A word of caution must be added however, since this is a single case study, a larger clinical trial is needed to replicate these findings," says Levesque".

http://sev.prnewswire.com/health-car...6022009-1.html

Levesque and this most promising of treatments seems to have stalled for years, lets hope it is at last finding some traction.

Neil.

I know for many of us English speakers it's hard to feel like they're doing actual science when it's not in our native tongue. But just to give a small window of perspective, I have friends from Europe and South America who would never trust a doctor from the USA, and who are horrified by the thought of being over here and getting sick and having to be treated by doctors here. What am I trying to say? There are rigorous standards of treatment that differ from our system, and substantial scientific inquiry and achievement that our FDA hasn't caught up with yet. Since the US has the highest number of 'preventable deaths' due to medical mistakes of all the industrial nations, we might be actually safer in other countries.

Thanks for the good points, it's a sad fact about the preventable deaths.