Regenerative medicine protocols for neural diseases
Enhanced efficiency of the rehabilitation of the patients with residual organic damages of the brain and spinal cord by the administration of the autologous CD34+ mononuclear cells of blood.
Types of patients: all patients aged over 17 with residual neurological disorders after the brain/spinal cord injury, hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke, senile or vascular dementia, cerebral palsy and toxic (occupational hazards, pharmaceutical, narcotic, alcohol and other) effects on the central nervous system.
Therapy principle: The death of the cells that constitute normal structure of the tissues of the brain and spinal cord after traumatic, vascular, autoimmune and/or toxic effect induces the disorder of the function of the appropriate parts of the brain/spinal cord and disability. The conditions for tissue regeneration in the site of injury become extremely unfavorable, because of the disordered vascular supply, glial scars that induce local expression of tissular factors and cytokines that support inflammation but do not support recovery of the injured sites. As a rule, the blood circulating specialized cells of the organism normally promote restoration of the tissues after their damage, do not penetrate the blood-brain barrier that separates brain and spinal cord from the vascular bed and do not participate in the regeneration. To an extent, it is as if the sites of injury lack the building material. As a result, the injured sites do not recover their functions or recover them extremely slowly despite vigorous pharmaceutical support and contemporary rehabilitation programs. Administration of the autologous CD34+ mononuclear cells of peripheral blood of the patient that also contain precursor cells bypassing the blood-brain barrier provides the sites of injury with the “building material” and affects the local cellular restorative mechanisms of regulation. Administration of autologous adult cells does not entail the risk of tumor onset, immunological rejection, or transfer of viral or other latent infections.
The method: At the first stage autologous CD34+ mononuclear cells of peripheral blood are harvested from the patient. The cell material received from one séance suffices for a rather long course of therapy from 12 to 18 months. The isolated cell material is preserved at low temperature. Further, the cells are administered through spinal taps to cross the blood-brain barrier, where they migrate to the sites of injury and into the neural tissue to the central neurons of the brain and spinal cord that provide axon transportation.
Result. Active specialized rehabilitation aiming at the development of new functions of the brain and spinal cord gives better functional results and improves neurological functions in 50 to 90% patients depending on the type of injury and period after it.
