Combined Cell Therapy in the Treatment of Neurological Disorders

Abstract

Cell therapy of neurological diseases is gaining momentum. Various types of stem/progenitor cells and their derivatives have shown positive therapeutic results in animal models of neurological disorders and in clinical trials. Each tested cell type proved to have its advantages and flaws and unique cellular and molecular mechanism of action, prompting the idea to test combined transplantation of two or more types of cells (combined cell therapy). This review summarizes the results of combined cell therapy of neurological pathologies reported up to this point. The number of papers describing experimental studies or clinical trials addressing this subject is still limited. However, its successful application to the treatment of neurological pathologies including stroke, spinal cord injury, neurodegenerative diseases, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and retinal degeneration has been reported in both experimental and clinical studies. The advantages of combined cell therapy can be realized by simple summation of beneficial effects of different cells. Alternatively, one kind of cells can support the survival and functioning of the other by enhancing the formation of optimum environment or immunomodulation. No significant adverse events were reported. Combined cell therapy is a promising approach for the treatment of neurological disorders, but further research needs to be conducted.

Electroactive Scaffolds to Improve Neural Stem Cell Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury

“…Indeed, there are reports of a combinatorial approach where the co-transplantation of multiple cell candidates, including MSCs, OECs and NSCs, has been tested in a bid to develop an efficacious cell therapy with synergistic cell properties for SCI repair (62)(63)(64). The outcomes are variable, although on review appear promising as a growing number of studies are following this approach in cell therapy applications for neurological diseases (65). However, a cell candidate that can enhance the key aspects of regeneration including cell survival, engraftment and migration into the lesion and provide neuroprotection may be the most viable strategy.…”

The Impact of Cerebral Perfusion on Mesenchymal Stem Cells Distribution after Intra-Arterial Transplantation: A Quantitative MR Study

“…Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is a novel approach to the treatment of many severe neurological disorders causing irreversible damage of neural tissue, including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, and stroke [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. In the case of stroke, different routes of MSCs administration, including direct intracerebral, intrathecal, intraventricular, intravenous, intra-arterial, intranasal, and others have been tested in animal studies [ 4 , 5 ].…”

Strategies to Improve the Quality and Freshness of Human Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Neurological Diseases

“…Mukai et al focused on clinical trial of the MSC transplantation in the neurological diseases with detailed condition of the clinical trials [ 21 ]. Moreover, Namestnikova et al reported advantages of combinatorial methods, which are combination of coadministration of different stem/progenitor cell types, for the neurological diseases in animal and clinical study [ 22 ]. However, studies on the characteristics of human (hBM-MSCs) before transplantation are very limited.…”