Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis may now have a cure

Medical Adina Camarasu
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FDA (Food and Drug Administration in the United States) has approved a medical study of stem cells, designed to achieve results in the fight against ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis).

18 patients will benefit from this experimental treatment, considered to be an innovative approach to curing this disease, writes stemsure.ro.

Known as well as Lou Gehrig disease, ALS is a neurological disease that affects the neurons responsible for controlling the voluntary movement of muscles.

This disease ultimately causes a progressive paralysis, debilitating, resulting in the patient’s death in less than 5 years after diagnosis.

Researchers at the Medical Center Cedars – Sinai in Los Angeles have been approved US FDA to test this new combination of gene therapy and stem cells that was developed in hoping to arrest the progress of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

The enrollment in this experimental treatment should start soon. FDA approval will allow 18 patients to receive this new medication in the next few months.

Since there is no effective treatment for this disease and the only drugs that are given to patients aim at relieving the symptoms, this trial is seen as particularly significant.

Stem cells present a great interest for researchers in Regenerative Medicine.

‘This is a highly innovative approach to a disease that has ‘tangled’ medicine for many generations’, stated Shlomo Melmed, a doctor at Cedars – Sinai Medical Center.

‘This innovative combination of stem cells science, using a new device for injecting stem cells, plus the fact that we have modern research laboratories and the direct involvement of neuroscientists, neurosurgeons and neurologists, will make this project possible’, he added.