Date: 2015-01-26
Type of information: Results
phase: preclinical
Announcement: results
Company: BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics (USA - Israel)
Product: NurOwn™
Action
mechanism: stem cell therapy. NurOwn™ cells are autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells. These mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been induced, under BrainStorm’s proprietary methods, to secrete a variety of neurotrophic factors.
Disease: autism
Therapeutic area: Mental diseases - CNS diseases
Country:
Trial details:
Latest
news: * On January 26, 2015, BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics, a leading developer of adult stem cell technologies for neurodegenerative diseases, announced positive results from preclinical studies of NurOwn™ in the BTBR mouse model of autism. The BTBR mouse exhibits several stereotypical behavioral characteristics that resemble behaviors seen in autism spectrum disorders, including repetitive behaviors, altered social interactions, cognitive rigidity and impaired adaption to environment. These studies, conducted in collaboration with Professor Dani Offen, PhD, of Tel Aviv University Chief Scientific Advisor to BrainStorm, assessed the ability of NurOwn™ cells to affect the behavior of BTBR mice. Across all the measures, including assessments of repeated self-grooming, social interaction and cognitive rigidity, NurOwn™ cells demonstrated marked behavioral benefits in BTBR mice after a single treatment, as compared to control group, which consisted of BTBR mice treated only with vehicle. NurOwn™ cells performed particularly well in an important assessment of reversal of learning. This test evaluates the time it takes to the mice to maneuver in a water maze after the maze was first learned and then altered. In this cognitive rigidity test, NurOwn™-treated BTBR mice adapted quickly to the new conditions, taking 60% less time than the control BTBR mice to relearn the maze (p=0.016). Notably, the cognitive rigidity and social grooming behavior of the treated BTBR mice were similar to those behaviors observed in a normal mouse strain (C57/BL).
