World's 1st iPS Therapy for Spinal Cord Injuries Starts in Japan

Tokyo, Jan. 14 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Keio University said Friday it has started a clinical research to transplant neural progenitor cells derived from induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells into patients with spinal cord injuries, the first such attempt in the world. A patient who received the transplant in December last year has developed no abnormalities, and the surgery was a success, according to the university. At the same time, the university said it is still not possible to determine whether the patient's motor functions have actually recovered. Keio University professor Hideyuki Okano and his team have received iPS cells derived from a healthy person from Kyoto University and converted them into cells that are capable of developing into nerves. About 2 million of such cells were injected into the damaged section of the patient's spinal cord. The team will verify the safety and efficacy of the treatment while having the patient go through rehabilitation over a year. "It's a big step forward, but it'll take at least three to five years to put the treatment method into practical use," the team said. The team did not disclose the gender or the age of the patient to avoid individual identification. The iPS cell-derived cells will be transplanted into a total of four people. The team will seek the next patient in or after April. The clinical research was approved by a panel of experts at the health ministry in February 2019. Eligible for the transplant under the clinical research are people aged 18 or older whose nerves inside their spines are damaged due to accidents or other reasons and as a result became paralyzed completely in their limbs. The team has said it accepts only subacute patients who suffered injuries two to four weeks ago, as nerves of such patients are more likely to regenerate. It believes that transplanted cells turn into nerve cells inside the damaged parts of the body, connecting the broken parts of the nerves together. In experiments using monkeys and mice, the team has successfully recovered motor functions. In Japan, about 5,000 people suffer spinal cord damage every year, and more than 100,000 patients are said to be in a chronic stage. Treatment using iPS cells is also being carried out for intractable eye diseases, Parkinson's disease and ischemic cardiomyopathy. END