Results of a Phase I Clinical Safety Trial using a child’s own Cord Blood were recently published, and are giving families and researchers hope.

Back in June 2014, Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg and her team at Duke University Medical Center began a Phase I Clinical Safety Trial to determine if a Cord Blood Stem cell infusion in children with autism would be safe.

The goal of the study was to determine the safety of a single intravenous infusion of autologous (self) umbilical cord blood in children with autism.  It was also designed to research which outcome measures capture any impact these infusions might have on the child’s condition.

Now, almost three years later, the results are in and they show that cord blood stem cells are safe in children with autism.  The results also preliminarily indicated that there were improvements in symptoms in the majority of children.¹

So what now?  Even though the Phase I trial is complete, the team at Duke is not done looking at cord blood and autism.  A Phase II Clinical Trial is currently underway to determine if an intravenous infusion of a child’s own or unrelated donor cord blood stem cells is beneficial to children with autism.  ViaCord families are already participating in this trial, and more are expected to join.   Additionally, in honor of Autism Awareness Month, for the month of April, we will donate $10 for every enrollment to help support families participating in the ongoing Phase II Autism Cord Blood Clinical Trial.^*

Reasons like this are why here at ViaCord, we are committed to providing the highest quality umbilical cord blood stem cell collections for families. In fact, half of the families that participated in the Phase I trial were ViaCord Families.

This research is increasingly important and ViaCord is proud to have taken a central role in moving it forward by helping fund the Phase I Clinical Trial. We look forward to helping more families participate in trials as this research continues and moves into the next phase.

References:

1. Autologous Cord Blood Infusions Are Safe and Feasible in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Results of a Single-Center Phase I Open-Label Trial; Dawson, G., Sun, J. M., Davlantis, K. S., Murias, M., Franz, L., Troy, J., Simmons, R., Sabatos-DeVito, M., Durham, R. and Kurtzberg, J. (2017), Autologous Cord Blood Infusions Are Safe and Feasible in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Results of a Single-Center Phase I Open-Label Trial. STEM CELLS Translational Medicine. doi:10.1002/sctm.16-0474

*Duke University's PBMT Family Support Program - In honor of Autism Awareness Month, for the month of April, ViaCord will donate $10 for every enrollment to Duke University's PBMT Family Support Program. Duke's PBMT gives patients and their families the opportunity to receive services that otherwise may not have been available or financially accessible. Visit clinicaltrials.gov for more info about the Phase II Autism trial: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT02847182