Phase 1/2a clinical trial which uses a patient’s own cells injected into the brain under general anesthesia.

[Baron1]

This seems promising, however how far will they get before they lose interest and go in another direction as they always do. Time will tell, but this looks a better option than the current drugs with side effects.

Aspen Neuroscience has completed dosing the first two groups of patients in ASPIRO, an ongoing Phase 1/2a clinical trial that’s testing the safety and tolerability of ANPD001, an investigatory cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease.

Patients with moderate to severe Parkinson’s who have so far received ANPD001, which uses a patient’s own cells injected into the brain under general anesthesia, have had no serious side effects. All were sent home within 48 hours as planned.

“To date, ANPD001 and its delivery have been well tolerated, and no serious adverse events have been observed,” Edward Wirth III, MD, PhD, Aspen’s chief medical officer, said in a company press release. “All patients were discharged within 48 hours, per protocol.”

The open-label ASPIRO trial (NCT06344026) is testing how safe and well tolerated ANPD001 is over one year when injected at escalating doses in patients, ages 50-70. Researchers will also watch for changes in on time, when motor symptoms are under control, over a year.

“This is a major milestone for the first multi-patient, multicenter clinical trial of an autologous therapy for Parkinson’s disease,” Wirth said. “We are now advancing the program to investigate our new commercial formulation,” one that may be prepared at scale for the market, if ANPD001 is approved in the future.

parkinsonsnewstoday.com/new...

Best wishes to all.

[MarionP]

So are these some form of stem cells?

[Baron1 in reply to MarionP]

Hello,

A Type of stem cell.

In the trial, they will be using Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (also known as IPS cells or IPSCs) which are a type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from a somatic cell. (Somatic cells are the cells in the body other than sperm and egg cells which are called germ cells).

Subsequently, induced pluripotent stem cells have characteristics close to embryonic stem cells, but they are obtained by genetic reprogramming of differentiated adult cells, such as the ones in the trial from skin.

The trial with autologous (patient specific) stem cells, has been used in the past and is gaining attraction. Reasons being, they can be used in tissue/organ repair, with none of the drawbacks of tissue rejection or the need for immune suppression currently associated with transplantation from heterogeneous (related) donors. Also, since it does not involve sacrificing embryos, the technology has fewer ethical issues.

In particular the trial will be using this type of therapy process believing the cells will engraft without the risk of immune rejection, eliminating the need for immunosuppression and the associated side effects of using someone else's stem cells.

Science is moving slowly but in my opinion the correct way in utilizing a persons own cells to generate a regenerative process in the persons body. No rejections, no ethical concerns, just the patients consent.

Best Wishes.