BrainStorm Targets Treatment of Stroke with its Adult Stem Cell Technology
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BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. has announced that the Company is expanding its R&D program to include the treatment of the effects of stroke. The first efficacy animal studies are expected to start in the 4th quarter of 2006.
"We believe that our technology can play an important role in combating the effects of stroke, which is the most common life-threatening neurological disease," said BrainStorm's COO & Principal Executive Officer, Yoram Drucker.
"Addressing this major unmet medical need represents a further leveraging of our core technology, which has already shown much promise with successful pre-clinical studies in animal models with Parkinson's."
"We will be testing in animal models of stroke our propriety technology for generating differentiated cells that produce neurotrophic factors," said Chief Scientist Dr. Daniel Offen.
"We expect that the transplantation of cells that secrete neurotrophic factors will help to restore damaged neurons, slow down the progression of cell death and prevent further degeneration in the brain," he added.
BrainStorm has previously demonstrated that its bone marrow stem cell technology can differentiate adult stem cells into astrocyte-like cells with the capacity to produce and secrete a large variety of neurotrophic factors.
Pre-clinical studies have shown that transplanting the astrocyte-like cells into animal models of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's, resulted in a significant therapeutic improvement.
