People often ask me about stem cells for autism or even their hope of an autism cure. I’ve explained that there is no new treatment for autism based on stem cells. There aren’t even mildly encouraging data.
Note that it can be hurtful to the community to talk about an autism cure and disregarding neurodiversity. I’ve also become more aware on autism since I started blogging in 2010.
We’ll start our recommended reads with a new situation in the UK where police are investigating a cells-for-autism situation. However, before we get into the weekly reads, can you help The Niche out in a simple way?
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“Autism cure” police investigation
Met investigates ‘stem-cell autism cure’ claim, BBC. The London police are looking into risky autism “treatments” that may happen there. Many readers of The Niche are probably familiar with questionable stem cell treatments for autism here in the Americas including in the US. It’s happening world-wide too. Some academics are kind of encouraging this kind of stuff in a way with their hype or overstating of results, which is another part of this overall story.
There is no mention in the BBC article of the name of the clinic or practitioners. I have some additional information but I’m trying to confirm what is going on.
To be clear, there is no indication that any cell therapy can help kids with autism. Even Duke, one of the primary proponents of cord cells for autism, stopped its controversial program of charging $15,000 to infuse unproven cells into kids.
Google still knowingly puts kids at risk. Zero evidence stem cells help autism & they could do harm, yet it gives #1 search result for "stem cells for autism" to worrisome Ukraine clinic, above NIH, uni pages. @glenngabe This is not OK. Something needs to change @dannysullivan pic.twitter.com/COVKdClNaR
— Paul Knoepfler (@pknoepfler) April 19, 2024
Google doing harm in this area
Despite the consensus that there is no current safe and effective cell therapy for autism, if you Google search “stem cells for autism” now, astonishingly, Google in its wisdom gives an unproven Ukraine stem cell clinic the top spot for that search in the world. I re-did the search in incognito mode and found another unproven clinic as the #1 result.
These clinic sit #1, with their results above any university, NIH, etc.
As I’ve written more generally about Google and stem cells many times now, they are directing vulnerable people to get risky stem cells on so many fronts. I tweeted at Google search and a lot of SEO people chimed in about the concerns. See above.
More recommended reads
- Aspen Neuroscience Announces First Patient Dosed in First-in-Human Phase 1/2a Clinical Trial of Autologous Neuronal Cell Replacement Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease, PR. This is an exciting step forward! The study is “a Phase 1/2a open label clinical trial to assess safety and tolerability of ANPD001, an autologous, dopaminergic neuron cell replacement therapy for participants with moderate to severe Parkinson’s disease (PD).” I’ve been following Aspen Neuroscience for many years, including its founding by Jeanne Loring and her lab.
- The Promise of a Miracle Cure, Marketplace. This is a podcast episode on Doris Tyler and how she was blinded by unproven stem cell injections. I’ve written before about how a clinic in Georgia injected fat cells bilaterally into her eyes, leading to retinal detachments and complete blindness. I was interviewed for this podcast. You can probably hear my frustration about how little the FDA has done about the stem cell clinic industry overall. Just listening to it in final form, the loss for Doris hits home so strongly. She seems like such a delightful person.
- Reprogramming fibroblast into human iBlastoids, Nature Protocols.
- Cancer biologist Stuart Orkin was named one of Time’s 100 top influencers of the year. It’s nice to see scientists and especially cell biologist and geneticists getting such recognition.
Umbilical cord blood cells may not help but MSCs derived from umbilical tissue (or any other source) will be helpful in various disease states. These cells – mesenchymal stromal cells- will ensure the normal functioning of tissue-resident stem cells. This paper may be of interest PMID: 34410593
Why does autism occur? Is it due to impaired differentiation of neuronal stem cells or is it a genetic disorder?
There’s actually no particular reason to think that cord wall MSCs will “ensure the normal functioning” of other cells that would have any relevance to autism. You can’t make such blanket statements.
“To be clear, there is no indication that any cell therapy can help kids with autism. Even Duke, one of the primary proponents of cord cells for autism, stopped its controversial program of charging $15,000 to infuse unproven cells into kids.”
That was umbilical cord blood though.
Which is different from umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells.
Duke also conducted this placebo controlled phase 2 trial for autism in children using umbilical cord “tissue derived” mesenchymal stem cells. There were 137 participants so it was a pretty large trial. And if you follow this here link it shows that it’s been “completed” So I guess it’s done and they have yet to publish the results. I can’t wait to see the results, I’ve had my eye on this trial for a couple of years now. I’m hoping the results are world changing. I got my fingers crossed. https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04089579?term=Marcus+foundation&cntry=US&sort=nwst&draw=2&rank=9
Let’s see how it goes in terms of the published data but there are good reasons to be skeptical. (1) There’s no common sense, logical mechanism by which IV cells would help and, no, I don’t buy the immune system idea. (2) A single infusion won’t engraft and lead to long-term benefit. Repeated infusions (maybe just a good business model for cell banks?) could be risky if there really is immunosuppression. (3) ASD is an umbrella term with many diverse manifestations making it hard to show in a small clinical trial that there’s clear benefit.
I remain puzzled about why anyone would think that mesenchymal or hematopoietic stem cells makes sense to treat autism. It’s like treating autism with aspirin- there’s no reason to think that it would be helpful, but it’s easy to get.