SCiStar Study

One year later, spinal cord therapy still looks promising

/ Kevin McCormack / 6 Comments
Jake Javier – participant in the SCIStar study

The beginning of a clinical trial, particularly the first time a new therapy is being tested in people, is often a time of equal parts anticipation and nervousness. Anticipation, because you have been working to this point for many years. Nervousness, because you have never tested this in people before and even though you have done years of study to show it is probably safe, until you try it in people you never really know.

That’s why the latest results from the CIRM-funded SCiStar Study, a clinical trial for spinal cord injury, are so encouraging. The results show that, one year after being treated, all the patients are doing well, none have experienced any serious side effects, and most have experienced impressive gains in movement, mobility and strength.

Ed Wirth, Chief Medical Officer at BioTime

In a news release Ed Wirth,  BioTIme’s Chief Medical Officer, said they were encouraged by what they saw:

“We believe the primary goals of the SCiStar Study, which were to observe the safety of OPC1 in cervical spinal cord injury patients as well as other important metrics including related to the optimal timing of OPC1 injection, tolerability of the immunosuppression regimen, engraftment of OPC1 cells, and rates of motor recovery observed among different study subpopulations, have all been successfully achieved.”

The study involved transplanting what the researchers called AST-OPC1 cells into patients who have suffered recent injuries that have left them paralyzed from the neck down.  AST-OPC1 are oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, which develop into cells that support and protect nerve cells in the central nervous system, the area damaged in spinal cord injury. It’s hoped the treatment will restore connections at the injury site, allowing patients to regain some movement and feeling.

Altogether 25 patients were involved. Three, in Cohort 1, were given injections of just two million OPC1 cells. This was to ensure the approach was safe and wouldn’t endanger patients. The remaining 22, in Cohorts 2-5, were given between 10 and 20 million cells. One year after the last patient was treated the results show:

  • MRI scans show no evidence of adverse changes in any of the 25 SCiStar study subjects.
    • No SCiStar study subjects had worsening of neurological function post-injection
    • At 12 months, 95% (21/22) of patients in Cohorts 2-5 recovered at least one motor level on at least one side and 32% (7/22) of these subjects recovered two or more motor levels on at least one side. 
    • No patient saw decreased motor function following administration of OPC1 and all either retained for 12 months the motor function recovery seen through 6 months or experienced further motor function recovery from 6 to 12 months.
    • All three subjects in Cohort 1 and 95% (21/22) of those in Cohorts 2 to 5 have MRI scans at 12 months consistent with the formation of a tissue matrix at the injury site. This is encouraging evidence the OPC1 cells have engrafted at the injury site and helped to prevent cavitation, a destructive process that occurs within the spinal cord following spinal cord injuries, and typically results in permanent loss of motor and sensory function.

“We appreciate the support of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the world’s largest institution dedicated to bringing the future of cellular medicine closer to reality, whose generous grant funding to date of $14.3 million has helped advance the clinical development of our OPC1 program and generate these encouraging clinical results in patients with traumatic spinal cord injuries.”

BioTime is now planning to meet with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later this year to discuss next steps for the therapy. Soon as we know the outcome of those talks, we’ll share them with you.

First spinal cord injury trial patient gets maximum stem cell dose

/ Kevin McCormack / 3 Comments

kris-boesen

Kris Boesen, CIRM spinal cord injury clinical trial patient.

There comes a pivotal point in every experiment where you say “ok, now we are going to see if this really works.” We may be at that point in the clinical trial we are funding to see if stem cells can help people with spinal cord injuries.

Today Asterias Biotherapeutics announced they have given the first patient in the clinical trial the highest dose of 20 million cells. The therapy was administered at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC) in San Jose, California where Jake Javier – a young man who was treated at an earlier stage of the trial – was treated. You can read Jake’s story here.

The goal of the trial is to test the safety of transplanting three escalating doses of AST-OPC1 cells. These are a form of cell called oligodendrocyte progenitors, which are capable of becoming several different kinds of nerve cells, some of which play a supporting role and help protect nerve cells in the central nervous system – the area damaged in spinal cord injury.

In a news release, Dr. Edward Wirth, Asterias’ Chief Medical Officer, says this could be a crucial phase in the trial:

“We have been very encouraged by the early clinical efficacy and safety data for AST-OPC1, and we now look forward to evaluating the 20 million cell dose in complete cervical spinal cord injury patients. Based on extensive pre-clinical research, this is in the dosing range where we would expect to see optimal clinical improvement in these patients.”

To be eligible, individuals have to have experienced a severe neck injury in the last 30 days, one that has left them with no sensation or movement below the level of their injury, and that means they have typically lost all lower limb function and most hand and arm function.

In the first phase individuals were given 2 million cells. This was primarily to make sure that this approach was safe and wouldn’t cause any problems for the patients. The second phase boosted that dose to ten million cells. That was thought to be about half the therapeutic dose but it seemed to help all those enrolled. By 90 days after the transplant all five patients treated with ten million cells had shown some level of recovery of at least one motor level, meaning they had regained some use of their arms and/or hands on at least one side of their body. Two of the patients experienced an improvement of two motor levels. Perhaps the most impressive was Kris Boesen, who regained movement and strength in both his arms and hands. He says he is even experiencing some movement in his legs.

All this is, of course, tremendously encouraging, but we also have to sound a note of caution. Sometimes individuals experience spontaneous recovery after an accident like this. The fact that all five patients in the 10 million cell group did well suggests that this may be more than just a coincidence. That’s why this next group, the 20 million cell cohort, is so important.

As Steve McKenna, Chief of the Trauma Center at SCVMC, says; if we are truly going to see an improvement in people’s condition because of the stem cell transplant, this is when we would expect to see it:

“The early efficacy results presented in September from the 10 million cell AIS-A cohort were quite encouraging, and we’re looking forward to seeing if those meaningful functional improvements are maintained through six months and beyond. We are also looking forward to seeing the results in patients from the higher 20 million cell AST-OPC1 dose, as well as results in the first AIS-B patients.”

For more information about the Asterias clinical trial, including locations and eligibility requirements, go here: www.clinicaltrials.gov, using Identifier NCT02302157, and at the SCiStar Study Website (www.SCiStar-study.com).

We can never talk about this clinical trial without paying tribute to a tremendous patient advocate and a great champion of stem cell research, Roman Reed. He’s the driving force behind the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act  which helped fund the pioneering research of Dr. Hans Keirstead that laid the groundwork for this clinical trial.