Spinal Delivery of Drug Aids Lou Gehrig’s Disease Patients

A new way of delivering a cellular growth factor may lead to an improvement in treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. A variety of work in animals has suggested that ciliary neurotrophic factor, or CNTF, could slow the course of the disease, but an earlier trial in humans was halted because of the drug’s severe side effects, which included weight loss and puffing of the body.

Dr. Patrick Aebischer of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland told the neuroscience meeting about a preliminary clinical trial in which CNTF-producing cells were encapsulated in a porous membrane and implanted in the spinal cord. All 10 volunteers had high levels of CNTF in their spinal fluid and no side effects, he said. Preliminary results hinted that the drug might be helping their disease, he added.