Wednesday > June 14 > 2006 
  
Still waiting for gene therapy
Scientists hope to treat kids with cerebral palsy
  
CHARLIE FIDELMAN 
The Gazette 


Wednesday, June 14, 2006


Stem cells, gene therapy and deep brain electrical stimulation are exciting
neurology researchers, but will these innovations turn out to be effective
therapies for children with cerebral palsy?

"We've been promised gene therapy for the last 20 years and it still hasn't
materialized," British pediatric neurologist Peter Baxter said yesterday.

"But there's lot of effort and a lot of gifted people really trying to find
better ways to help children achieve more," said Baxter, co-chairperson of the
panel on advances in cerebral palsy at the 10th International Child Neurology
Congress, which runs through Friday in Montreal.

Stem-cell growth is often hard to direct or control, he said. But a key line of
therapy under investigation involves inserting a reed-thin wire deep into the
brain for electrical stimulation. It's been used on adults with Parkinson's
disease, he said, but it's not known whether it's effective on young patients
with cerebral palsy.

Little is known about the causes of cerebral palsy, an umbrella term for a
complex condition that affects 15 million children worldwide. The disorder
affects two children out of 1,000. The diagnosis of cerebral palsy, using a
series of tests, often comes when a child fails to reach a developmental marker.
For example, not lifting the head by age 3 months could be an indicator.

Motor disability varies in type and severity and may involve speech and
breathing problems, floppiness or spasticity, balance and co-ordination.

Most treatment is directed at improving a child's quality of life.

Milivoj Velickovic Perat, of the University Pediatric Hospital in Ljubljana,
Slovenia, dismissed the possibility of stem cell therapy for cerebral palsy.

He also warned against fake remedies and treatments that "were not proven
effective," including biofeedback, acupuncture and the controversial hyperbaric
oxygen therapy, which involves entering a sealed chamber and breathing air
saturated with a higher percentage of oxygen.

Anyone can understand parents' desperate desire to help their child, pediatric
neurologist and congress chairperson Michael Shevell said.

But after a double-blind, placebo-controlled Quebec study published in the
Lancet showed "no difference" between a group of children who received a placebo
and those getting hyperbaric oxygen, Shevell said, "On a scientific basis, I
cannot recommend it."

Families affected by cerebral palsy and epilepsy are invited to discuss the
disorders with local experts at two public forums, running concurrently, from
3-5 p.m. today at the Hilton Bonaventure Hotel, 900 la Gauchetiere St. W.

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C The Gazette (Montreal) 2006
 




 
 
 
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