Stem Cell Therapy for Epilepsy

[sophia8]

Does anybody know whether this could be an effective treatment, or is it just more quackery?
This showed up in my Twitter feed today. The appeal for funds, the Panama clinic, the anecdotal testimonials, the lack of references to actual studies - all these raised red flags for me. I'd hate to see another family scammed by medical quacks.

 

[casebro]

Stem cells are used in different systems of the body to replace lost cells.

Epilepsy is a brain disease, and I think brain cells replace themselves by growing and splitting. So in my ignorant little pea of a brain, stem cells wouldn't be expected to work there.

 

[Dr. Imago]

Neurons do not regenerate. Supporting cells (astrocytes, glial cells) do.

Depends on the nature of the underlying condition that has caused the epilepsy, which can be very different depending on the inciting mechanism for the seizures (i.e., Lennox-Gastaut syndrome vs. temporal lobe epilepsy, as one example, which are very different mechanistically). "Epilepsy" is a catch-all for many different clinical manifestations of seizure disorders.

If the research is not based in sounds science, is not supported by rigorous controlled data, and is not reproducible between centers, then this will not prove to be a fruitful avenue for intervention.

~Dr. Imago

 

[ThunderChunky]

Neurons do not regenerate. Supporting cells (astrocytes, glial cells) do.

Neural stem cells do generate new neurons even in adults. Many of the new cells die, but some persist. There are even some potential neurogenic drugs being researched that function by protecting new neurons from destruction.

However, stem cell therapy in general is ripe for frauds willing to sell hope to the desperate. There are stem cell treatments being tested for cerebral palsy, but nothing has actually been proven effective yet. Legitimate trials are ongoing, but these international clinics are unscrupulous to say the least. Even if real stem cell therapy proves effective, the way they do it is not likely to work.

"These clinics commonly inject patient-specific bone marrow, or banked umbilical cord cells. Adult bone marrow cells do not turn into mature neurons or oligodendrocytes within the brain, and banked cord blood cells are killed by the patient’s immune system."

http://www.childhooddisability.ca/w...5/Stem-cell-factsheet_eng_spring2011.docx.pdf

Desperate people will always fall victim to this kind of stuff.