Scientists believe that a
combination of therapies could stimulate regeneration CREDIT:GETTY
- Sarah Knapton, science
editor
3 MAY 2016 • 12:15PM
A groundbreaking trial to see if it is possible
to regenerate the brains of dead people, has won approval from health
watchdogs.
A biotech company in the US has been granted
ethical permission to recruit 20 patients who have been declared clinically
dead from a traumatic brain injury, to test whether parts of their central
nervous system can be brought back to life.
Scientists will use a combination of therapies,
which include injecting the brain with stem cells and a cocktail of
peptides, as well as deploying lasers and nerve stimulation techniques
which have been shown to bring patients out of comas.
The trial participants will have
been certified dead and only kept alive through life support.
They will be monitored for several months using brain imaging equipment to
look for signs of regeneration, particularly in the upper spinal cord
- the lowest region of the brain stem which controls independent breathing
and heartbeat.
The team believes that the brain stem cells may
be able to erase their history and re-start life again, based on their
surrounding tissue – a process seen in the animal kingdom in creatures like
salamanders who can regrow entire limbs.
Dr Ira Pastor, the CEO of Bioquark
Inc. said:
“This represents the first trial of its kind and another step towards the
eventual reversal of death in our lifetime.
“We just received approval for our first 20 subjects
and we hope to start recruiting patients immediately from this first site – we
are working with the hospital now to identify families where there may be a
religious or medical barrier to organ donation.
"To undertake such a complex initiative,
we are combining biologic regenerative medicine tools with other existing
medical devices typically used for stimulation of the central nervous
system, in patients with other severe disorders of consciousness.
“We hope to see results within the first
two to three months."
The patients will be monitored using MRI scans
for several months CREDIT: CHRONIS JONS
The ReAnima Project has just received approach from an
Institutional Review Board at the National Institutes of Health in the US and
in India, and the team plans to start recruiting patients immediately.
The first stage, named 'First In Human
Neuro-Regeneration & Neuro-Reanimation' will be a non-randomised, single
group 'proof of concept' and will take place at Anupam Hospital in Rudrapur,
Uttarakhand India.
The peptides will be administered into the
spinal cord daily via a pump, with the stem cells given bi-weekly, over the
course of a 6 week period.
Dr Pastor added: "It is a long term vision
of ours that a full recovery in such patients is a possibility, although that
is not the focus of this first study – but it is a bridge to that
eventuality."
Brain stem death is when a person no longer has
any brain stem functions, and has permanently lost the potential for
consciousness and the capacity to breathe.
A person is confirmed as being dead when their
brain stem function is permanently lost.
However, although brain dead humans are
technically no longer alive, their bodies can often still circulate blood,
digest food, excrete waste, balance hormones, grow, sexually mature, heal
wounds, spike a fever, and gestate and deliver a baby.
Recent studies have also suggested that some
electrical activity and blood flow continues after brain cell death, just not
enough to allow for the whole body to function.
And while human beings lack substantial
regenerative capabilities in the central nervous system, many non-human
species, such as amphibians and certain fish, can repair, regenerate and
remodel substantial portions of their brain and brain stem even after critical
life-threatening trauma.
“Through our study, we will gain unique
insights into the state of human brain death, which will have important
connections to future therapeutic development for other severe disorders of
consciousness, such as coma, and the vegetative and minimally conscious states,
as well as a range of degenerative CNS conditions, including Alzheimer's and
Parkinson's disease,” added Dr Sergei Paylian, Founder, President, and
Chief Science Officer of Bioquark Inc.
Commenting on the trial, Dr Dean Burnett, a
neuroscientist at the Cardiff University’s Centre for Medical Education said:
“While there have been numerous demonstrations in recent years that the human
brain and nervous system may not be as fixed and irreparable as is typically
assumed, the idea that brain death could be easily reversed seems very
far-fetched, given our current abilities and understanding of neuroscience.
“Saving individual parts might be helpful but
it's a long way from resurrecting a whole working brain, in a functional,
undamaged state.”
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