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 According to the ALS Association, 5,600 people in the United States
are diagnosed each year with the neurodegenerative disease, also
known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, which has severely disabled British
physicist Stephen Hawking.
New data to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology annual
meeting on Tuesday show that six months after a single
administration of the stem cell treatment called NurOwn there was a
statistically significant improvement in the rate of decline in
Forced Vital Capacity, which measures the amount of air a person can
dispense from the lungs.
There was also improvement in the rate of decline in the ALS
Functional Rating Score, which tests 12 different functions.
In addition, patients who received NurOwn through an intramuscular
injection showed an improvement in the rate of decline in muscle
mass in the right arm, the site of NurOwn administration, as
compared to the left arm.
"Given the nature of ALS and lack of effective therapies, a
treatment that could even modestly slow progression would be
welcomed by patients and physicians," said Dimitrios Karussis of
Hadassah University Medical Center, the principal investigator for
the study.
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In October the U.S. Food and Drug Administration designated NurOwn
as a "fast-track" product to treat ALS.
BrainStorm, which is also conducting clinical trials at three sites
in the United States, plans to move to a study in the next few
months to see if the results can be amplified with repeated doses.
(Reporting by Tova Cohen; editing by Susan Thomas)
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