For the first time, people with broken spines have recovered feeling in previously paralysed areas after receiving injections of neural stem cells. Three people with paralysis received injections of 20 million neural stem cells directly into the injured region of their spinal cord. The cells, acquired from donated fetal brain tissue, were injected between four and eight months after the injuries happened. The patients also received a temporary course of immunosuppressive drugs to limit rejection of the cells. None of the three felt any sensation below their nipples before the treatment. Six months after therapy, two of them had sensations of touch and heat below their belly button. The third patient has not seen any change. "The fact we've seen responses to light touch, heat and electrical impulses so far down in two of the patients is very unexpected," says Stephen Huhn of StemCells, the company in Newark, California, developing and testing the treatment. "They're really close to normal in those areas now in their sensitivity," he adds. "We are very intrigued to see that patients have gained considerable sensory function," says Armin Curt of Balgrist University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, where the patients were treated, and principal investigator in … Continue reading →

Jonathan Kratchman, a 16-year-old with autism from Cherry Hill, likes participating in medical research studies. "They explain everything to him," says his mother, Amy Kratchman. "For once he feels that someone is listening to him. He's always asking, 'Mom, when's the next study?' " Over the next few years, both mother and son will be spending even more time on the front lines of autism research. Amy Kratchman is part of a research team at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia that recently received a $668,000 federal grant to help doctors understand the treatment outcomes that children and parents really want. Clinical trials are critical because they test new treatments and help improve care. And while it may seem obvious to take the views of parents and children into account, that hasn't been the case. Patients and health professionals often "speak a very different language," says Katherine Bevans, lead researcher on the project. For example, she says, physicians treating autism spectrum disorder tend to "focus on things like aggressive behavior, lethargy, fatigue," which parents and children rarely mention. "They ask, 'How does it affect the family? How does it help [the children] adapt better to new events and people?' " Bevans said. … Continue reading →