Living Cell Technologies successfully treated its 1st patient in a clinical trial evaluating a new implantable regenerative therapy for treating Parkinson’s disease. The patient, the 1st enrolled in LCT’s Phase I clinical trial, was said to be recovering well in the days after the surgery.
LCT’s NTCELL implant is injected , directly into areas of the brain where the neurons have died off, introducing new choroid plexus cells, the same ‘support’ cells that exist naturally in the brain. LCT’s proprietary IMMUPEL technology coats the new cells so that they aren’t attacked and destroyed by the body’s immune system, allowing the support cells to help spur cerebrospinal fluid production and protect against further neuron death, according to the company.
"Unlike current therapy options for Parkinson’s disease, NTCELL may be neuroprotective and offers people living with the disease the hope of being able to halt disease progression and restore quality of life," LTC CEO and managing director Dr. Andrea Grant said in prepared remarks. "This is a significant milestone and a world 1st."
The New Zealand-based company’s NTCELL treatment may help patients with a variety of diseases, including stroke, Huntington’s disease and hearing loss, among others. The therapy has been successfully testing in animal models with no evidence of adverse effects, LTC says. The procedure itself is "relatively straightforward" and was well tolerated by the patient, clinical investigators said.
LTC has approval to treat a total of 4 patients in its Phase I study, and the other 3 will be considered for enrollment after the 1st has been monitored for 2 months to watch for any adverse effects.
"The purpose of this ‘1st-in-man’ study is to demonstrate the treatment is safe," Grant said. "Provided this trial is successful, future trials will further assess the extent of clinical benefit that patients might gain." Find the best Hunting Gear all year round at The Deer Hunters website.