Quick Question/Stem Cells

[Paul.nagourney]

My dear friends. I remember I got a lot of feedback when we talked about stem cells. so I was really really hoping that i can get some feedback on another issue.

There iwas a clinical trial of valproic acid done for ALS by "Leonard H Van den Berg, MD, PhD, Study Chair, UMC Utrecht"

Does anyone know whoat the outcome was?

I would rreally appreciate any help.

Thanks again for your support

Paul (oh yeah, valproic acid stimulates endogenous stem cells...you wont have to go to india/bahamas any more !)

 

[Al]

If you google it only says things that I would take to mean it would do no good for ALS and may cause harm with drug interactions with some drugs usually taken by ALS patients. I'd stay away from it.
AL.

 

[Paul.nagourney]

Thanx

I guess they did the trial and it failed? See thats the problem, a lot of times people dont publish failures in the literature...just successes...so you have to ask nice guys like you Al to search the net and find info.

Thanks again for your help

Paul

 

[Diana Roelands]

Natriumvalproaat study

For people reading Dutch here is the link to a website giving info on the Natriumvalproaat study:
http://www.spierziekten.nl/spierziekten/nieuws.php?diagnose_id=13&nieuws_id=911

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For people not reading Dutch I will try to give a short summary of the article.

The placebo-controled study took 2 years and started in 2005 in the UMC Utrecht. Later also the AMC-Amsterdam and the Radboud hospital in Nijmegen joined.
Unfortunately natriumvalproaat had no effect on the development of ALS. No difference was found between the ALS patients that used natriumvalproaat and the patients that used the placebo.

The reason why this trial was done...
Natriumvalproaat has been used for many years by patients with epilepsy. Investigation in the laboratory showed that the survival motor neuron protein (SMN) increased when people used natriumvalproaat. Therefore they expected natriumvalproaat to have a very good change to be succesful as medicin for ALS, because there seems to be a connection between the quantity of this SMN and the way ALS develops.

A lot of ALS patients in the Netherlands joined this study and the negative outcome is very disappointing for the patients as well as for the researchers.
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In May 2007 the Dutch ALS Centrum started the SIRONA study, an examination to find out the effect of the substance ONO2506PO on ALS patients. This is an experimental medicin. On laboratory animals it demonstrated a protective effect on the cells that support the nerve-cells.
They do not know yet of the ONO2506PO has a protective effect on the nerve-cells of ALS patients too, although this has been examined before on ALS patients and there seemed to be an effect on patients who had symptoms for a short period. That is why they repeat the trial now, only for patients with a relative short duration of ALS.

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Hope this answers one of your questions.
Regards,
Diana