Cell-based Treatment of Cerebral Palsy: Still a Long Way Ahead

Abstract

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a permanent neurodevelopmental disorder with considerable global disability. Various rehabilitation strategies are currently available. However, none represents a convincing curative result. Cellular therapy recently holds much promise as an alternative strategy to repair neurologic defects. Method: In this narrative review, a comprehensive search of the MEDLINE and ClinicalTrials.gov was made, using the terms: "cell therapy" and "cerebral palsy", including published and registered clinical studies, respectively. Results: The early effects of these studies demonstrated that using cell therapy in CP patients is safe and improves the deficits for a variable duration. Despite such hopeful early bird results, the long-term outcomes are not conclusive. Conclusions: Due to the heterogeneous nature of CP, personal factors seem essential to consider. Cell dosage, routes of administration, and repeated dosing are pivotal to establish optimal personalized treatments. Future clinical trials should consider employing other cell types, specific cell modifications before administration, and cell-free platforms. Method: In this narrative review, a comprehensive search of the MEDLINE and ClinicalTrials.gov was made, using the terms: "cell therapy" and "cerebral palsy", including published and registered clinical studies, respectively. Results: The early effects of these studies demonstrated that using cell therapy in CP patients is safe and improves the deficits for a variable duration. Despite such hopeful early bird results, the long-term outcomes are not conclusive. Conclusions: Due to the heterogeneous nature of CP, personal factors seem essential to consider. Cell dosage, routes of administration, and repeated dosing are pivotal to establish optimal personalized treatments. Future clinical trials should consider employing other cell types, specific cell modifications before administration, and cell-free platforms.

Systematic Comparison Suggesting Intranasal Transplantation was the Best Route of Administration of Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells(hUC-MSCs) in Hypoxic-ischaemic brain damage (HIBD)Rat Model

“…More and more studies have shown the effectiveness of hUC-MSCs in the treatment of HIBD and related sequelae (Boruczkowski and Zdolinska-Malinowska, 2019;Dong et al, 2018;Xie et al, 2020). However, so far, most of the studies are still in the initial clinical trial stage (Shariati et al, 2022), which has to be attributed to the fact that there are still many problems related to hUC-MSCs that have not been solved. For example, the most suitable dose, the most appropriate time window and the best effective way of stem cell transplantation.…”