Release date: 2017-06-08
The US Bioquark company will launch a controversial study this year, and they hope to use stem cells to achieve a seemingly impossible task - to reverse death.
Bioquark's full treatment
The study was conducted at Bioquark in Philadelphia, where researchers injected stem cells into the spinal cord of patients who had been declared dead. At the same time, the subject will also receive injections of mixed proteins, electrical stimulation of the nerves, and laser treatment directly directed at the brain.
The ultimate goal of these attempts is only one: to make new neurons in the brain of the subject and to make them connect to each other, so as to achieve a real return to life.
"We believe that this problem cannot be solved by a single panacea, so it makes no sense to start with a 'prescription'. Therefore, we take a completely different approach." Bioquark CEO Ella Pa Ster said.
But in a small number of documents, it seems that even if several magical drugs are put together, it is difficult to achieve Pastor's goal.
As early as April 2016, Bioquark launched the trial in northern India, but did not recruit any subjects. According to Science, the trial was declared aborted in November of the same year without approval from the General Administration of Drug Control of India.
Pastor said that Bioquark's work to find a clinical trial site is currently in its final stages. In the next few months, Bioquark will announce the launch of the trial in Latin America.
If you copy a trial that failed to make a trip in India, the researchers need to recruit 20 subjects and carry out a series of radical treatments. First, the researchers will inject stem cells that are removed from the patient's own fat or blood, and then inject a peptide "package" into the patient's spinal cord to provide nutrients for the growth of new neurons. (Bioquark has tested this formula called BQ-A on animal models with melanoma, brain trauma and skin folds.) In the third step, the patient will receive 15 days of electrical stimulation and laser stimulation of the nerves. Treatment to promote nerve growth and connect nerves. Researchers will use brainwaves and patient behavior signals to determine whether treatment is effective.
Of course, Bioquark's plan is still full of doubts. If brain activity is restored, what kind of brain function will the patient have? Should the family of the patient be looking forward to this extremely difficult test?
At the moment, we are still far from the answer to most questions. "Of course, many people will ask questions like 'What do you want to do next?'" Pastor admitted. "For us, getting patients fully recovered is a long-term goal for us to follow this path, but This is not the focus or main goal of the first trial."
A scam?
Because there is no precedent for reference, it is difficult to judge whether this method works - and the study has provoked a strong opposition. Dr. Aliana Louis, a neurologist, and bioethicist Arthur Kaplan wrote in a 2016 editorial that the trial was "nearly a scam" and "no scientific basis", giving the family of the deceased "cruel" And false hopes." (Past responded that such exploratory research projects are not false hopes, they give people a glimmer of hope.)
The company has not yet fully tested a four-pronged set of therapies on animal models. Some studies have evaluated the effects of these therapies on other conditions, such as strokes, coma, etc., but brain death is not the same thing as these.
Therapy of injecting stem cells into the brain and spinal cord has had some positive effects in children with brain damage. Clinical trials using similar therapies for patients with cerebral palsy and ALS have also been completed. A small, non-randomized, controlled trial of 21 stroke patients found that patients had a certain degree of recovery in exercise capacity after receiving brain stem cell injections. The results of research on transcranial laser equipment are mixed, and some animal studies have shown that this method can stimulate and promote neuronal growth. However, in 2014, a much-anticipated human transcranial laser study was stopped in the third phase because it did not help restore athletic capacity in 600 stroke patients. Other trials using laser therapy to awaken comatose patients are still ongoing.
The papers on electrical stimulation therapy for the median nerve (extending from the spinal cord to the arm to the finger) are mainly case studies. Several of these papers were written by Dr. Ed Cooper, who described dozens of patients who received this treatment in North Carolina. Of these patients, 12 were only 4 points according to the Glasgow Coma Scale, and the degree of coma was quite deep. The paper said that after a period of time (during this period of nerve stimulation treatment), four of them received "a fairly good improvement"; others left a small or large sequela after coma.
Cooper himself is an orthopaedic surgeon who has worked with neurosurgeons on the research described in this paper. Cooper unambiguously pointed out that this technique is ineffective in people who die from the brain. He said that this technique relies on a functioning brain stem, and most motor neurons are connected to the cerebral cortex through this structure. If there is no brain stem that works, this method will not work.
Pastor agreed with Cooper's words, but he claimed that the technology could work because patients with brain deaths still have "a small group of cells" that don't lose function.
To complicate the trial, there is currently no clear brain death test method—meaning that even if the patient recovers during the trial, it may not be entirely therapeutic. For example, some poisons or drugs can make people look like they are dead. Bioquark plans to make a decision about brain death by a local doctor at the site of the trial. "We won't do this confirmation ourselves," Pastor said, but each subject tested will receive a series of tests that the local government deems appropriate.
However, combined with the results of 38 papers published in the past 13 years, if the brain death criteria of the American Academy of Neurology are used, the brain function of people who have never had brain death can be restored.
Dr. Charles Cox said that Bioquark's entire research project "is not the craziest thing I have ever heard, but I think the probability of success is close to zero." Cox is a pediatric surgeon at the Texas Health Medicine Center. Studies were performed using mesenchymal stem cells - the same cells used in the Bioquark test. Cox is not involved in Bioquark's research.
Cox said that after a person dies, cells in a brain area called the subventricular zone can still grow in the medium. However, the goal of the trial – to generate new neurons or new neuronal connections through stem cell therapy – is unlikely to succeed. Cox said that it is difficult for neurons to survive because the brain blood flow of the brain-dead person has almost completely stopped.
However, Pastor believes that Bioquark's research program can work. "I feel that our chances of success are not small," he said. "I think what we need is to combine the various methods to find the right people and the right ideas."
Cox is not so optimistic. "I think (to make someone resurrected) is definitely a miracle," he said. "I see, the Pope will definitely be a miracle."
Source: Sina Pharmaceutical News
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