Intraspinal Transplantation of Autologous ADRC in ALS Patients

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable disease of unknown etiology that in a short time leads to significant impairment of motor functions and death. The frequency of ALS is 4-8/100 000. Mostly it affects people between 40 and 70 years old, but it can occur at a younger age. Since the symptom onset is most frequently in the fifth or sixth decade, ALS is a huge economic burden for the society. There are many studies conducted to treat the disease and prevent it, but currently the medicine offers only one drug that can slow the appearance of disease symptoms but could not stop the progression. Yet, improvements in medical management, including nutrition and breathing, regularly increase patient survival - 50% of affected patients live at least 3 or more years after diagnosis; 20% live 5 years or more; and up to 10% will survive more than 10 years. The stem-cell-based therapies could be therefore a new waited strategy for ALS clinical treatment.

Since the clinical course of ALS may vary substantially between patients, we are planning to qualify them with a primarily established clinical course based on a detailed anamnesis and clinical assessment. The goal of our nonrandomized, open label study is to investigate the safety and efficacy of autologous adipose derived mesenchymal regenerative cells (ADRC) transplantation into the individuals with diagnosed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In order to select a group of 30 ALS patients for the ADRC treatment, approximately 50 ALS patients will be examined. All patients enrolled will have a documented at least 3-months clinical and electrophisiological observation of ALS disease course prior to study enrollment. Each patient will recive 3 injections of ADRC every 3 months: an intraspinal injection followed by 2 subsequent intrathecal infusions. Safety, adverse events and efficacy will be confirmed by clinical, elecrophisiological ( EMG, MUNIX), neuroimmaging and spirometry together with functional (ALSFRS-R) and objective motor assesment (MRC and dynamometer).