Posts
Fact or Fiction? Facts About Autism Treatment with Stem Cells
Part of the difficulty with using stem cell treatment for Autism is that we don't know what we are treating. Regardless of the positive promotion of various "theories" about what causes autism, there's no generally agreed upon pathology or "lesion" to treat. Even genetic studies fail to show one single genetic reason for autism, recommending that what we call "autism" is a number of different disorders with a similar (or not so similar) appearance. Injecting stem cells in the imprecise hope that they are going to find the problem and fix it is stupid. Stem cells have no more notion of the easy way to "fix" autism than we do - which is to point out, "none".
The "good reports" I referred to above is that, based primarily on the outlines of what they are doing, the hospitals where folks are taking their autistic kids for "stem cell therapy" are using - at best - multipotent blood stem cells. The descriptions are far more promotional than informative, so it is totally possible that their "techniques" are yielding no stem cells whatsoever. This is "good" because infusing real pluripotent stem cells into the blood or (worse yet) into the spinal liquid carries the chance of creating cancers without any known (or suspected) potential for benefit.
A major consideration is that claimed "stem cell" cures might or might not involve tangible stem cells. This is a particularly arguable technology (at the very least on this side of the pond), and so far as I can tell even the advocates don't think it is anywhere near ready to be used as a treatment.
It occurs to me that quacks getting hold of actual stem cells could be an accidental consequence of Bush's denial of Fed. funding in the area. When legitimate research is underfunded, it is a foreseeable outcome that shady ventures will snatch up surplus resources.
stem cells are being used in a few sicknesses previously considered to be "degenerative" without cytotoxic therapy e.g. Coronary arrest and Parkinson's disease which are starting to be recognised as inflaming diseases.
We aren't searching for astonishing and simple progress where we just inject cells and poof, wizardry happens, just more understanding. We don't see that getting said in public fairly often.
More generally we also wish to know how organs (like adrenal glands) get made, which again impacts our considering the genes involved, and yes, there are some people out there who 'just ' need to be well placed to make new parts like heart valves from your own stem cells.
The crucial genes/proteins/processes in stem cells are heavy hitters, and we are able to hardly imagine more understanding of them failing to be crucial. Perhaps that is hard to sell without going deep into precise examples though.
The "good reports" I referred to above is that, based primarily on the outlines of what they are doing, the hospitals where folks are taking their autistic kids for "stem cell therapy" are using - at best - multipotent blood stem cells. The descriptions are far more promotional than informative, so it is totally possible that their "techniques" are yielding no stem cells whatsoever. This is "good" because infusing real pluripotent stem cells into the blood or (worse yet) into the spinal liquid carries the chance of creating cancers without any known (or suspected) potential for benefit.
A major consideration is that claimed "stem cell" cures might or might not involve tangible stem cells. This is a particularly arguable technology (at the very least on this side of the pond), and so far as I can tell even the advocates don't think it is anywhere near ready to be used as a treatment.
It occurs to me that quacks getting hold of actual stem cells could be an accidental consequence of Bush's denial of Fed. funding in the area. When legitimate research is underfunded, it is a foreseeable outcome that shady ventures will snatch up surplus resources.
stem cells are being used in a few sicknesses previously considered to be "degenerative" without cytotoxic therapy e.g. Coronary arrest and Parkinson's disease which are starting to be recognised as inflaming diseases.
We aren't searching for astonishing and simple progress where we just inject cells and poof, wizardry happens, just more understanding. We don't see that getting said in public fairly often.
More generally we also wish to know how organs (like adrenal glands) get made, which again impacts our considering the genes involved, and yes, there are some people out there who 'just ' need to be well placed to make new parts like heart valves from your own stem cells.
The crucial genes/proteins/processes in stem cells are heavy hitters, and we are able to hardly imagine more understanding of them failing to be crucial. Perhaps that is hard to sell without going deep into precise examples though.
About the Author:
0 comments:
Post a Comment