Intraspinal stem cell transplantation for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

ABSTRACT: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder in which the loss of upper and lower motor neurons produces progressive weakness and eventually death. In the decades since the approval of riluzole, the only US Food and Drug Administration-approved medication to moderately slow progression of ALS, no new therapeutics have arisen to alter the course of the disease. This is partly due to our incomplete understanding of the complex pathogenesis of motor neuron degeneration. Stem cells have emerged as an attractive option in treating ALS, because they come armed with equally complex cellular machinery and may modulate the local microenvironment in many ways to rescue diseased motor neurons. Various stem cell types are being evaluated in preclinical and early clin

SUBMITTER: Chen KS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4789073 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature