Results from two clinical trials conducted at the University of Miami have shown that the symptoms of aging can be reversed with stem cell therapy and that such treatments are safe and effective in addressing major age-related problems.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a distinct type of adult stem cells that are attracting increasing interest from scientists. It is believed that they can be used to heal at least a dozen different pathologies, from cancer to cardiovascular diseases.
A new way of using MSCs should reduce the impact of age-related changes on elderly patients. This is the first stem cell therapy targeting specifically senile frailty that has come close to being approved by the US Health Regulatory Agency.
The first and second phases of the experiment were to assess the safety of this therapy. Patients aged 76 and over received an injection of MSCs taken from the bone marrow of an adult donor. No suspicious side effects were found, and after 6 months all patients showed improvement in physical condition, tumor necrosis factor and overall well-being.
The next phase will be testing the drug on 120 participants in the experiment in 10 different institutions. After that, only the final clinical trials will remain, and it will be possible to move on to the large-scale use of the drug in medicine, according to New Atlas.
“Given the general aging of the population, stem cells are emerging as a promising treatment for age-related disorders and ailments, improving physical condition and quality of life,” said Joshua Hare, one of the study participants. “There is no FDA-approved treatment for senile disease yet, and there is a huge pent-up demand that will only increase with demographic change.”
