Preliminary Human Experiments to Test Safety of Paralysis Treatment Using Nerve Cells
ROCKVILLE, Maryland--A new experiment aimed at achieving actor Christopher Reeve's dream of finding an effective treatment for paralysis was announced this week at an international meeting of scientists and people with spinal cord injury sponsored by the United 2 Fight Paralysis Foundation. The approach, which already is shown to be promising in animals and avoids the need for patients to take immuno-suppressive drugs, certainly could be found to be ineffective in humans. Nonetheless, patients are excited to see this advance as they have been frustrated waiting for the first human trials of the new approach.W. Dalton Dietrich, scientific director of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami School of Medicine, announced here that his research team has submitted an application to the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for permission to begin new "Phase 1" experiments on humans to treat paralysis using the new cell transplantation technique. Phase...
