With a stem cell trial by British biotech firm ReNeuron Group PLC having passed a crucial safety test, optimism about a treatment to undo stroke damage has come one step closer to reality!

In the first-of-its-kind clinical trial, stem cells from foetuses were injected, without any notable safety concerns, into the brains of three patients – at Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital - who had been disabled by stroke. This was done in order to build new brain tissue as well as repair the neurological damage that the stroke caused to the victims.

Since the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board’s review of safety data from ReNeuron Group PLC’s ReN001 stem cell therapy showed that there were no prominent side-effects of the revolutionary jabs, it was recommended that the trial be advanced to higher doses of stem cell therapy testing.

Noting that strokes kill nearly 67,000 people a year in the UK, Glasgow University’s Prof Keith, who was the trial leader, said that ReN001 has the potential to address a momentous unmet medical requirement need in patients disabled due to stroke.

Meanwhile, terming the success of the clinical trial as “very much a case of so far, so good,” and stating that though the trial is at a very early stage, the results are promising, ReNeuron Group’s CEO Michael Hunt said: “The earliest a treatment could be widely available if all goes very well is five years”!