Overview
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are mostly inherent and affect the brain.
It is therefore natural to treat genes and help the brain regenerate cells to treat Autism.
Let us explore the promise of stem cell therapy for Autism and what the past and current medical knowledge say about stem cell therapy’s effectiveness.
Early Developments
Around 2009, a team of medical experts, led by Dr. Philip Schwartz, began working on stem cell therapy for Autism. What is crucial about his work is the technique they used.
Dr. Schwartz used skin cells to develop brain cells from Autistic children that could be studied and researched upon. You might wonder what does it have to do with stem cell?
Creating brain cells using skin cells is an example of stem cell therapy itself.
The technique has been inspired by Shinya Yamanaka, who won a Noble Prize in 2012 for his monumental work with stem cells.
Their research spearheaded the use of stem cell therapy to treat Autism which has offered positive results.
Building On
Thanks to Dr. Schwartz and Shinya Yamanaka’s contributions, experts worked on and perfected Patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
It has equipped medical experts to determine using stem cells how external influences adversely affect neurodevelopment.
Hence, we can now explain the existence and possible treatment of Autism.
Moreover, iPSCs offer a window of opportunity to learn how genetic risks translate into biological functions relevant for Autism.
Thus, professionals can model genetic and epigenetic underpinnings of Autism with the help of stem cells.
Today, Autism’s genetic makeup can be understood a lot better – potentially providing a breakthrough in discovering how to most effectively treat Autism using stem cells.
Clinical Trials & Results
According to clinical trials of an open-label study conducted by Dawson and colleagues in 2017, stem cell therapy showed highly significant and positive results for more than two dozen children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
The effects were so large that they were observable and calculable across a range of tests that involved testing children’s socialization, communication, and cognitive behaviors.
With such promising results, we can place our trust in stem cell technology that is helping tens of children with Autism socialize and learn about the world more openly.
Current Key Developments
While iPSCs are a recent key development, there are several others also ongoing.
Current literature shows multiple types of stem cells, such as fetal stem cells, bone marrow stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, neural stem cells, umbilical cord, and amniotic fluid-derived stem cells.
Considering all the research over time, it is evident how effective stem cell therapy is to treat ASD.
However, almost all the research unanimously agrees upon devising new and improving existing transplantation methods of stem cells – making them more effective for ASD and other neurological diseases.
Conclusion
What started as a Noble-award-winning research into stem cell technology has culminated into pragmatic, direct-to-consumer stem cell therapies that are helping millions of people with Autism navigate the world better.
Stem Cells Transplant Institute plays its part in helping understand and treat Autism.
