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Possible Future Research Potential for Autism Treatment from Cord Blood Stem Cells

By Charles Fox

About 10 years ago my brother and sister-in-law generously allowed us to "bank" their son's (our nephew's) cord blood at the time of his birth, for an indefinite future where the stem cells in the cord blood could have real therapeutic applications. I have at least one client, who have gone abroad for stem cell treatments, and claim very positive effects. We have been using Cord Blood Registry ("CBR") as the bank for the stem cells. I just received the following notice (see below) about possible research opportunities using cord blood to investigate therapies to address autism.  Read the discussion in http://www.blisstree.com/autismvox/another-autism-treatment-stem-cell-therapy/ as a caution about stems cells as a current viable therapy. Nevertheless,  I thought this notice would be worthwhile to share. We all need  hope within the confines of safe and proven therapies.

Dear Families of Cord Blood Registry,

We regularly receive questions from clients about the status of cord blood stem research and autism and want to provide this update.

For those of you who have a child with autism, you already know that it is the most prevalent childhood developmental disorder. As you may have seen in the news this month, a study published in Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics' journal found that the parent-reported autism prevalence rate was one in every 91 American children. Another report expected later this year from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that one in 100 children have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by 8-years of age. This is up from the 2007 estimated prevalence of one in 150. This new estimate means that approximately 673,000 U.S. children have autism.

Autism has been dubbed "an urgent public heath concern" by the CDC and it's no surprise that hundreds of organizations are dedicated to supporting new autism research. Despite this focus, we are not currently aware of any active or planned clinical trials to treat autism with stem cells. While there have been therapies proposed using cord blood stem cells and anecdotal evidence from a few clinics outside of the U.S. describing the use of stem cells to treat autism, none of these treatments have been validated. Because the underlying cause or causes of autism are not fully understood, researchers face significant obstacles in developing research study models using stem-cell based therapies.

However, we at Cord Blood Registry believe we may be able to help advance potential stem cell-based research for autism by taking an important first step: identifying individuals who have access to their own cord blood stem cells AND who have been diagnosed with an ASD. Based on the most recent statistics, there could be more than 3,200 children with ASD whose cord blood is stored with CBR. This is a substantial patient population that could interest researchers.

If you have a child diagnosed with a form of ASD and would like to be notified in the event that a researcher is considering a trial and interested in contacting you, we encourage you to register with CBR's Center for Regenerative Medicine here: http://www.cordblood.com/regenerative-medicine/autism. Please note: no personal information will be shared without written permission from you.

We want to emphasize that while we are not aware of any U.S. clinical trial in development today, we are committed to keeping you informed about any significant advancements in research or potential clinical trial opportunities.

Sincerely,

Heather Brown, M.S., C.G.C.
Vice President, Scientific & Medical Affairs
Cord Blood Registry

The CBR Center for Regenerative Medicine is a scientific research collaborative established by Cord Blood Registry ? in partnership with leading research institutions from around the world ? to promote greater scientific understanding of cord blood stem cells and advance their use to treat life-threatening and life-limiting injuries and diseases.

Full post as published by Special Education Law Blog on October 14, 2009 (boomark / email).