Combined protocol of cell therapy for chronic spinal cord injury. Report on the electrical and functional recovery of two patients

BACKGROUND

This is a preliminary report on successful results obtained during treatment of two patients with chronic spinal cord injury. The therapeutic approach was based on the generation of controlled inflammatory activity at the injury site that induced a microenvironment for the subsequent administration of autologous, BM-driven transdifferentiated neural stem cells (NSC).

METHODS

BM mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) were cocultured with the patient's autoimmune T (AT) cells to be transdifferentiated into NSC. Forty-eight hours prior to NSC implant, patients received an i.v. infusion of 5 x 10(8) to 1 x 10(9) AT cells. NSC were infused via a feeding artery of the lesion site. Safety evaluations were performed everyday, from the day of the first infusion until 96 h after the second infusion. After treatment, patients started a Vojta and Bobath neurorehabilitation program.

RESULTS

At present two patients have been treated. Patient 1 was a 19-year-old man who presented paraplegia at the eight thoracic vertebra (T8) with his sensitive level corresponding to his sixth thoracic metamere (T6). He received two AT-NSC treatments and neurorehabilitation for 6 months. At present his motor level corresponds to his first sacral metamere (S1) and his sensitive level to the fourth sacral metamere (S4). Patient 2 was a 21-year-old woman who had a lesion that extended from her third to her fifth cervical vertebrae (C3-C5). Prior to her first therapeutic cycle she had severe quadriplegia and her sensitive level corresponded to her second cervical metamere (C2). After 3 months of treatment her motor and sensitive levels reached her first and second thoracic metameres (T1-T2). No adverse events were detected in either patient.

DISCUSSION

The preliminary results lead us to think that this minimally invasive approach, which has minor adverse events, is effective for the repair of chronic spinal cord lesions.

Treatment with meliacine, a plant derived antiviral, prevents the development of herpetic stromal keratitis in mice

Herpetic stromal keratitis is caused by ocular infection with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and constitutes a leading cause of human blindness. The effect of meliacine, an antiviral compound isolated from leaves of Melia azedarach L. that inhibits HSV-1 replication in vitro, was examined on experimental corneal HSV-1 inoculation in Balb/c mice. Mice were inoculated with HSV-1 strain KOS at their corneas after abrasion. Meliacine was administered topically 3 times a day for 4 days beginning 1 day before inoculation. Infected animals treated or not with meliacine were observed carefully for the development of stromal keratitis and the clinical scoring was done 14 days post-infection. Histological examination of corneas and viral isolation from eyes from HSV-1 infected mice treated or not with meliacine were also carried out. It was found that the treatment of HSV-1-induced ocular disease in Balb/c mice with meliacine reduced significantly the development of clinical disease, as well as the histological damage in corneas. The viral titers detected in eyes of infected and treated mice were 2-orders-of-magnitude lower than those corresponding to HSV-1 infected control animals. Mock-infected and treated mice did not reveal any corneal alteration due to the administration of the compound. Meliacine was found to exert a strong antiviral action on HSV-1-induced ocular disease in mice with no evidence of toxic effects.