The use of stem cells in the treatment of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by degradation of motoneurons (MN). No effective treatment is currently available. Cellular therapy is considered to be a promising experimental treatment that could target the pathology of complex disease through many potential mechanisms. We compared the effect of three types of repeated applications of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC): intrathecal administrations, intramuscular administrations and the combination of these applications. Best results were obtained after combined repeated hMSC administrations. We observed the rescue of MN, neuromuscular junctions and decreasing levels of proteins involved in the signaling of necroptosis (Rip1, cl-casp 8), apoptosis (cl-casp 9) and autophagy (beclin 1), decreasing astrogliosis and the level of astrocytic connexin 43. Neural precursors derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (NP-iPS) are considered as other promising candidates for ALS therapy. Intraspinal administration of NP-iPS increased mRNA expression of BDNF and IGF-1, on the other hand decreased expression of proapoptotic casp 3. We also observed their effect on expression of components of perineural nets (PNN). Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) are the other cell candidates for the treatment of neurodegenerative..