Repeated Mesenchymal Stem Cell Injections in ALS

An open-label, single-center clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of repeated intrathecal administrations of autologous bone marrow derived mesenchyme stem cells in ALS patients. The study includes 20 subjects (age: 20-70) with definite diagnosis of ALS and ALS-FRS-R score of at least 20 and disease-duration of less than 3 years. The treatment protocol includes four intrathecal injections of MSC, at intervals of 3 months between the injections. The primary endpoints are safety and tolerability. Several efficacy measures are assessed as secondary endpoints.

Applications from patients are received in our centre. An independent selective committee set by hospital's administration examines anonymously, according to the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. After inclusion and screening visit, patients are followed up for a "run-in" period of 6 months before the first visit (visit 1), to evaluate the progression rate of their disease. and for six months following the last transplantation.

One month after inclusion, patients undergo bone Marrow Aspiration (BMA) procedure and MSC cells are produced from the bone marrow aspirate. On the treatment visit, the patients are transplanted with an intrathecal (IT) injection of MSC (1 million cells per kg of body weight) and thereafter with additional injections every 3-6 months. After the MSC transplantation patients are examined on a bimonthly basis and evaluated for ALSFRSr scoring and forced vital capacity of the lungs (FVC) for a total follow up period of 3 months post last MSC-injection.

To establish the progression rate of the disease the monthly changes in the functional ALS score: ALSFRSr will be calculated during the 6 months-"run in period" and for the whole duration of the study, ending at 3 months following the last injection of MSC stem cells. The progression rate (as evidenced by the monthly changes in ALSFRSr and FVC) during the study (calculated at last visit time point, 3 months after the last MSC-injection) will be compared to the progression rate during the "run-in" period.

The follow up visits include observation for side effects, full neurological evaluation and muscle chart, ALS score and forced vital capacity (FVC) test. The safety is assessed following treatment with MSC, using measurements of the following variables: physical examination, vital signs (HR, BP, RR, body temperature), and clinical laboratory parameters: WBC with differential and platelet count, hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Ht), blood chemistry for electrolytes, creatinine and liver enzymes.

All selected patients undergo bone marrow aspiration under light general anaesthesia and an inoculum of crude bone marrow cells (150 ml) is obtained and two thirds of it kept frozen. One third is cultured under GCP conditions at the human cell cultures clean room facility of Hadassah HMO. The MSCs are obtained from the bone marrow of each patient and prepared using our previously described protocol with slight modification.

One month later the patient is hospitalized and a lumbar puncture performed under standard conditions and local anaesthesia at the L4-5 lumbar level and 3 ml of CSF are removed and the cultured purified MSCs (1x106/kg of body weight) resuspended in 3 ml of normal saline are injected in the CSF, using a 20-gauge needle and 3-way cannula.