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CompletedNCT01051882Updated Jan 10, 2019

Autologous Cultured Mesenchymal Bone Marrow Stromal Cells Secreting Neurotrophic Factors (MSC-NTF), in ALS Patients.

A Phase 1/2 interventional study of MSC-NTF cells transplantation (IM) and MSC-NTF cells transplantation (IT) in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, sponsored by Brainstorm-Cell Therapeutics. Completed at 1 site in Israel. Open to participants aged 20 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-01-10.

Sponsored by Brainstorm-Cell Therapeutics · Phase 1/2, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 1/2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
12
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
20 Years to 75 Years
Sex
All
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Study summary

The study will evaluate the safety, tolerability and therapeutic effects (preliminary efficacy) of injection of autologous cultured mesenchymal bone marrow stromal cells secreting neurotrophic factors (MSC-NTF), as a possible treatment for patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) at the early and progressive disease stages.

Read the detailed description

This study is a single center trial to be conducted at the Department of Neurology \& Laboratory of Neuroimmunology, at the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem in Israel. All patients enrolled will have a documented history of ALS disease prior to study enrolment. Patients diagnosed as early stage ALS disease with duration of less than 6 months and patients diagnosed with progressive stage ALS disease with duration of 6-12 months. Overall, 24 patients will be recruited and allocated based on their ALS disease severity to 2 treatment groups: Group A - 12 patients of early ALS disease stage and Group B - 12 patients of progressive ALS disease.

Eligible patients will be enrolled into the study and will be observed for every 2 weeks during a "run in period" of 3 months for determination of the progression rate of the disease. During the "run in period" after about 6 weeks following enrollment, patients of both study groups will undergo a Bone Marrow Aspiration procedure and MSC-NTF cells will be produced from the bone marrow aspirate based on Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Ltd proprietary method. On the last "run in period" visit, patients of both study groups will undergo the treatment and MSC-NTF will be transplanted by IM or IT injection to the early and progressive ALS patients respectively.

After the MSC-NTF transplantation patients will be observed on a monthly basis for a post treatment follow up period of 6 months.

02

Conditions studied

  • Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Keywords

  • Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSC)
  • Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
  • Neuroprotection
  • Neurodegeneration
  • Stem cells
  • ALS
03

In context

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

978 studies on the registry are indexed under Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; 277 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 12 is below the median of 38 across 662 interventional studies indexed under Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Browse Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis studies →

Lead sponsor

Brainstorm-Cell Therapeutics is the lead sponsor of 7 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
20 Years to 75 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. El Escorial criteria for definite or probable ALS
  2. Either men or non pregnant women between 20-75 years of age.
  3. Patient is mentally intact and psychologically stable
  4. For early stage ALS- Patients will be with ALS-FRS-R scale of at least 30 and disease duration of less than 2 years.Or, for progressive stage ALS- Patients will be with an ALS-FRS-R scale of 15-30 and disease duration of less than 2 years
  5. For early stage ALS- Patient has sufficiently bulky muscles. Or, for progressive stage ALS- Patient with at least 60% FVC
  6. Participant understands the nature of the procedure and provides written prior to any study procedure.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Positive test for , , and Mycoplasma.
  2. High protein in the CSF.
  3. Lymphocytosis in the CSF.
  4. Positive for anti-GM1 antibodies.
  5. Patient has significant conduction blocks or slow nerve conduction velocities (a reduction of more than 30%) confirmed by nerve conduction velocity - EMG studies.
  6. The patient is a respiratory dependent.
  7. Renal failure, impaired hepatic function
  8. Patients suffering from significant cardiac disease, malignant diseases or any other disease that may risk the patient or interfere with the ability to interpret the results
  9. Active infections.
  10. Participation in another clinical trial within 1 month prior to start of this study.
  11. Subject unwilling or unable to comply with the requirements of the protocol.
  12. Patient has not been treated previously with any cellular therapy.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(4)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

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Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 1 / Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
12 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    MSC-NTF cells IM

    Intramuscular administration in early stage patients

    Biological: MSC-NTF cells transplantation (IM)

  • Experimental
    MSC-NTF cells IT

    Intrathecal administration in progressive stage patients

    Biological: MSC-NTF cells transplantation (IT)

Interventions

  • BiologicalMSC-NTF cells transplantation (IM)

    In early ALS subjects: Autologous MSC-NTF cells will be transplanted under mild anesthesia, intramuscularly into patients' clinically unaffected (or only mildly affected) upper arm biceps and triceps muscles according to a pre-designed grid. Intramuscular injections will be by a 26 gauge needle to a 1.5cm depth (ensuring that injection is into muscle and not adipose tissue). The patients will be injected at 24 sites with a total of 24 million cells

  • BiologicalMSC-NTF cells transplantation (IT)

    In progressive ALS subjects: Autologous MSC-NTF cells will be transplanted under mild anesthesia intrathecally(via a standard lumbar puncture)with a total of 60 million cells.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Safety evaluation and tolerability of a single treatment administration of autologous cultured mesenchymal bone marrow stromal cells secreting neurotrophic factors (MSC-NTF)

    Safety evaluation and tolerability of a single treatment administration of autologous cultured mesenchymal bone marrow stromal cells secreting neurotrophic factors (MSC-NTF) by multiple intramuscular injections (IM) at 24 separate sites on the biceps and triceps muscles to patients with ALS at the early disease stage

    Time frame: 6 months

  2. Safety evaluation and tolerability of single intrathecal injection (IT) into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of autologous cultured mesenchymal bone marrow stromal cells secreting neurotrophic factors (MSC-NTF)

    Safety evaluation and tolerability of single intrathecal injection (IT) into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of autologous cultured mesenchymal bone marrow stromal cells secreting neurotrophic factors (MSC-NTF),to patients with ALS at the progressive disease stage.

    Time frame: 6 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. Changes in the progression rate of the disease as evidenced by changes in the ALS functional rating scale (ALS-FRS)

    Time frame: 6 months

  2. Changes in muscle strength grading (MVIC) by muscle chart

    Time frame: 6 months

  3. Changes in forced vital capacity (FVC %) (In the progressive disease stage group only).

    Time frame: 6 months

  4. Changes in muscle bulk estimated by MRI of the upper and lower extremities

    Time frame: 6 months

  5. Changes in upper and lower extremities circumference (cm)

    Time frame: 6 months

  6. Changes in EMG parameters

    Time frame: 6 months

  7. Need and time to tracheotomy or permanent assisted ventilation

    Time frame: 6 months

  8. Overall survival, calculating time to death

    Time frame: 6 months

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Hadassah Medical Organization
    Jerusalem, 91120, Israel
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Petrou P, Gothelf Y, Argov Z, Gotkine M, Levy YS, Kassis I, Vaknin-Dembinsky A, Ben-Hur T, Offen D, Abramsky O, Melamed E, Karussis D. Safety and Clinical Effects of Mesenchymal Stem Cells Secreting Neurotrophic Factor Transplantation in Patients With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Results of Phase 1/2 and 2a Clinical Trials. JAMA Neurol. 2016 Mar;73(3):337-44. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2015.4321. PubMed 26751635 ↗
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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jan 10, 2019, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01051882
Lead sponsor
Brainstorm-Cell Therapeutics
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jan 20, 2010
Start date
Jun 2011
Primary completion
Dec 2012
Completion
Mar 2013
Last update
Jan 10, 2019

Study contacts

Dimitrios Karussis, MD, PhD
principal investigator · Hadassah Medical Organization
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Aug 2012. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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