Cerebral palsy is a muscle movement disorder that can severely limit quality of life. While there’s no known cure for the disease, stem cell therapy is a new therapy that treats the underlying cause of the disease to restore muscle movement and improve quality of life.
Keep reading while we discuss why stem cell therapy may be one of the best cerebral palsy treatments and the evidence that supports this claim.
Overview of Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy is a group of conditions that impair muscle movement, including loss of movement or coordination issues. Cerebral palsy is caused by damage to the brain or abnormal brain development during childhood or before birth. Depending on the person and the type of cerebral palsy, symptoms can include:
- Difficulty walking
- Difficulty sitting
- Muscle stiffness
- Poor muscle coordination
- Tremors
- Delayed speech development
- Neurological issues
cerebral palsy cause
Conventional cerebral palsy treatment is aimed at preventing complications and helping people live with the condition through assistive aids. Medications for cerebral palsy are aimed at relaxing muscles. As a relatively new therapy, stem cell treatment for cerebral palsy aims to treat the cerebral palsy cause.
Why MSCs for Cerebral Palsy?
Most stem cell therapy clinics, including Swiss Medica, use adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to treat cerebral palsy. MSCs can differentiate into brain cells, which makes them useful in treating cerebral palsy.
Most other treatments focus on managing symptoms of cerebral palsy. However, stem cell therapy treats the underlying cause of cerebral palsy to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life.
How MSCs Work
MSCs migrate to damaged areas of the brain and differentiate into neurons, replacing damaged brain cells and promoting the growth of new, healthy neurons. MSCs also have neuroprotective properties that prevent damage to existing neurons.
Research shows that neuroinflammation can also lead to the progression of cerebral palsy. MSCs have anti-inflammatory properties that reduce neuroinflammation, improving cerebral palsy symptoms and potentially stopping disease progression.
MSCs also create new blood vessels, thereby improving blood flow to damaged areas of the brain and supporting the healing process.
Clinical Evidence and Research
A meta-analysis concluded that MSC therapy is safe and effective. In controlled trials, cerebral palsy patients who received MSC therapy saw an increase in motor functions.
Additional research shows that MSCs derived from an umbilical cord can improve spasticity and motor function in patients with cerebral palsy. Animal studies on the efficacy of MSCs have shown that MSCs contribute significantly to tissue repair and regeneration.
Treatment Process
Patients with cerebral palsy must go through pretreatment evaluation before receiving stem cell therapy. Doctors will create a personalized treatment plan, screen for contraindications and determine the stem cell source and quantity.
Patients receive stem cell treatment through a simple IV drip and the whole procedure can be completed within a day. Patients will see reductions in symptoms over the next two to four months.
Role of Exosomes and Additional Therapies
Many clinics use exosomes as part of their stem cell treatment. Exosomes are microvesicles that carry the same properties as stem cells they come from, but are more effective at delivering therapeutic benefits.
Exosomes communicate with other cells in the body and influence their behavior, regenerating damaged cells and modulating the immune system.
Exosomes can travel to local or remote sites of the body, and once they are absorbed by other cells they can program the cells and change their metabolism. Exosomes also stay in the body for longer than stem cells, which means patients have more time to experience the benefits of the therapy.
Stem cell treatment is more effective when combined with other cerebral palsy treatments. For example, physiotherapy can help patients regain muscle control and strength during stem cell treatment.
Ethical and Safety Considerations
MSCs are a popular choice for stem cell therapy because they can be ethically sourced from fat tissue, gum tissue, or bone marrow, or the placenta or umbilical cord of a newborn.
MSCs don’t have the same safety risks as embryonic stem cells, such as the risk of tumor formation. The most common side effect of MSC therapy is a mild fever, which usually passes on its own.
In conclusion
Conventional treatments for cerebral palsy are focused on helping patients live with the condition rather than treating the cerebral palsy cause. Stem cell therapy can significantly improve cerebral palsy symptoms by treating the underlying brain damage and abnormal brain development present in people with this condition.
MSCs are a good option for treating cerebral palsy because they are safe and ethical and have been scientifically shown to support brain tissue repair and regeneration. Using MSC-derived exosomes and receiving occupational and physiotherapy can improve the effectiveness of stem cell therapy.
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