Finally True Hope For Those With ALS

Hat Tip to Israel Matzav

For many years those with ALS also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, have prayed for a cure for the disease that would eventually kill them.  And now an Israeli company, BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics  has been granted a US patent for their autologous stem cell technology.

Israel-based BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics said on Monday the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company a key patent for its autologous stem cell technology.

The patent covers BrainStorm's stem cells induced to secrete elevated levels of neurotrophic factors for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Pending approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, the company is preparing for its upcoming mid-stage Phase II trial in the United States with its NurOwn adult stem cell therapy.

BrainStorm is developing NurOwn for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

Separately, the company said it has signed a definitive agreement with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to conduct a Phase II clinical trial of NurOwn in ALS, pending FDA approval. The other two clinical sites slated for the trial are the University of Massachusetts Memorial Hospital and Mayo Clinic.

"The recent bill introduced to the U.S. Senate to support regenerative medicine research is yet another indication of the increasing recognition that stem cells hold the promise for curing life-threatening and debilitating conditions like ALS," said Chaim Lebovits, BrainStorm's president.

"We are very encouraged by the bill's proposal to appoint a council that would develop and maintain a national strategy for the promotion of regenerative medicine research and development."

SOURCE

The following is a clip from Channel 2 in Israel about this breakthrough. It is in Hebrew with subtitles.



Click here if the video fails to load.

Stephen Hawking has ALS and is boycotting Israel.  Will he show himself to be a true hypocrite and take this treatment or will he have the fortitude to refuse this cure?  I bet it will be the first.

For other sufferers of ALS there is now true hope.  Let us hope that the final trials all go well and thousands are now cured.  How Mr. Gehrig would be jumping with joy for that.

A Message To ALS Sufferers - From Israel

Hat Tip to Simply Jews

Let's keep our fingers crossed, and if it comes to be, one of the more cruel diseases may be conquered or, at least, managed to a degree considered hitherto impossible.



Click here if the video fails to load.

BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (OTC BB: BCLI), Israeli Channel 2 TV interviewed today a patient suffering from Myasthenia Gravis (MG) and recently diagnosed with ALS. The patient reported that he has experienced visible improvement in his speech, walking, balance, posture, muscle strength, appetite, digestion, and weight gain following compassionate treatment with BrainStorm's NurOwn cell therapy....

BrainStorm expects to expand its ALS clinical development into the United States. Orphan-drug designation for NurOwn has been granted by the US Food and Drug Administration. In addition, the Company has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital to begin ALS human clinical trials at these institutions.

And more:

BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics said the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota has agreed to conduct a clinical trial of the company's adult stem cell treatment for ALS. The Mayo Clinic is the third leading U.S. clinical site to sign a letter of understanding, following the University of Massachusetts and Massachusetts General, BrainStorm said on Monday.

What else is left to say? Oh yes, and I hope that the treatment will become available in time to help our principled boycotter, Stephen Hawking, who used to support the ALS research in Israel.

About Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. According to the ALS Association, approximately 5,600 people in the U.S.are diagnosed with ALS each year and it is estimated that as many as 30,000 Americans may have the disease at any given time. The financial cost to families of patients is exceedingly high.

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Stephen Hawking has been living (existing) with ALS since 1963 when he was given 2 years to live.  He is still alive and is the only person to live with ALS as long as he has.  (50 years)  It is a shame that Professor Hawking has decided to boycott Israel.  A boycott that could cost him his life.

Stem cell injections may causer tumors

There are some reasons why man shouldn't play G-d. This maybe one of them.

Israeli researchers are the first in the world to have documented that the injection of stem cells from aborted human fetuses can trigger tumors.

Stem cells, especially those from few-day-old embryos, are considered by many to be a potential cure for a wide variety of chronic disorders - from Parkinson's and Alzheimer's to diabetes and heart disease - because they have the ability to produce new cells of all types for the repair of diseased organs.

But the new research, based on the case of a now-16-year-old Israeli youth suffering from a rare genetic degenerative disease who underwent the highly experimental injections in Russia, is the first documented case of a human brain tumor - albeit a benign, slow-growing one - after fetal stem cell therapy, and sounds an alarm that future stem cell use must be preceded by extensive research.

The patient, born here to parents of Moroccan origin, developed ataxia telangiectasia (AT) as a young child. Degeneration of a certain brain region gradually robs these children of movement, and a faulty immune system leads to frequent infections and cancers. Most victims die in their teens or early 20s.

Although the boy's doctors at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, urged the desperate parents against it, they took him to an unnamed clinic in Moscow for injections of fetal stem cells into his brain and spinal cord.

He returned to Russia twice - at age 10 and 12 - for more injections.

Then, at the age of 13, he developed painful headaches, and an MRI scan showed he had tumors in several parts of the brain and the spinal cord.

Two-and-a-half years ago, hematology Prof. Gideon Rechavi, head of Sheba's Cancer Center and Tel Aviv University's Cancer Biology Center, headed a team that investigated the case and found after extensive pathological and genetic research that the tumors were not germane to the patient, but were sourced from at least two fetuses whose foreign tissue had been injected into him.

For example, the tumors contained both XX (female) and XY (male) cells, while if they had come from the boy's body they could not have female chromosomes. They also had two normal copies of the ATM gene, which causes AT when mutated. Since the boy has AT, those genes cannot be his.

The team noted, however, that the fact that the boy has AT may have facilitated the growth of the tumors because of the weak immune system in such patients.

In 2006, the boy underwent brain and spinal cord surgery performed by Prof. Shlomo Constantini, head of the pediatric neurosurgery department at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center's Dana Children's Hospital. Only those tumors that were believed to grow relatively rapidly were removed.

Today, the youth's condition is stable, with the tumors growing slowly enough to be considered benign, but he is wheelchair-bound.

While the parents reportedly regret taking him to Russia, AT is such a dangerous genetic disorder - killing most victims by the age of 20 - that it threatens his life more than the tumors.

The Jerusalem Post learned that the researchers' work, just published in the US Public Library of Science (PLoS) on-line, open-access journal, was initially turned down for publication by the highly prestigious journals Nature and Science.

Read the full story here.

Although this is just one case, it may become the first of many that will show up as more and more desperate people turn towards stem cells for a miracle cure.

I wonder how many more patients have had this problem in Russia, how many are undiscovered with this problem not only in Russia but elsewhere and what is the rate that this happens.

The animal studies on stem cells are very exciting and the results there are promising, but there is no long term study on the effects of stem cells on the human body. Just the hype from the media and those who suffer from debilitating diseases or injuries. They are proclaiming stem cells as the next new miracle cure. Instead it might just be the opposite, a horrible and deadly side effect. One that has the ability to kill instead of cure.