Madeline Cooper, who is nearly 2 years old, is the first person in the nation to take part in a new Food and Drug Administration-approved study of stem cell treatment of sensorineural hearing loss.
Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston and California-based Cord Blood Registry will eventually enroll another nine children in this first phase of the study.
Unlike some advertised stem cell treatments that may cost patients tens of thousands of dollars — and, according to critics, are little more than quackery — the Conners paid nothing to take part and have been promised no specific results.
The process is simple: Doctors inject the children with stem cells from their own stored umbilical cords. Because it is the patients’ own blood, there is little chance the treatment will produce side effects.
In theory, the treatment will adjust patients’ immune systems to encourage their bodies to repair themselves. In truth, researchers have no idea if it will work.
Earlier Italian studies on mice concluded that stem cells may help the body repair damaged cells in the ear and restore some hearing in these types of cases, according to a 2008 published report in the University of South Florida journal Cell Transplantation.Madeline's hearing loss has gone from extreme to moderate hearing loss since undergoing the treatment. A definite improvement. This stem cell treatment will continue and may take a few years to help fully restore hearing loss. We will not know how fast this rate of restoration will take place over the next several months to a few years. We will know more once the Cooper family head back to Texas in July, and again in January of 2013, to get a more detailed assessment of Madeline’s improvement.
This will be the start of a new generation of cord-blood stem cell babies and toddlers born deaf to become, in theory, hearing with the help of their own blood-cord stem cells. An exciting era in regenerative medicine for parents of deaf children. This new cord-blood stem cell procedure was covered in my blog piece in January 2012 for your review.
Once proved successful parents of deaf babies will see this as the preferred treatment to help restore their child's hearing loss. This will certainly be a much preferable route (and cheaper, too) than to choose cochlear implant. Now the question becomes, will this eventually destroy the cochlear implant industry? Only time will tell.
18 comments:
Wow. I never thought it'd come that soon but then being a plain old country boy I'm a slow poke. I shouldn't be surprised at anything anymore. Thanks for sharing this.
Yeah, and people said this would come 15, 20 to 25 years down the road but it is happening right NOW! If this proves successful and safe, I predict that in 5 years parents with deaf babies will increasingly opt for the stem cells treatment (provided that they save the baby's cord blood which is increasingly becoming common to do anyways) and not worry about expensive cochlear implants. This will be a more natural treatment that's cheaper, safer, and proven to restore hearing loss in deaf babies.
so exciting for you, Mike? no more deaf on this earth that what Jesus created.
Even Jesus healed the blind, sick, deaf and mute.
Mark 7:31-37 Jesus Heals a Deaf and Mute Man
31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.[a] 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.
33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.
36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Besides, it's the parents who will be overjoyed to have access to this cure, if it proves to be successful, for their deaf babies.
This same application (cord blood stem cells) could be applied for blindness. Wouldn't you be excited for babies born with a blindness condition get cured with their own cord blood stem cells.
Besides, these deaf babies are not your babies...they belong to their parents.
Sounds great ! I wonder if they work on adults as well, I'd try it. Good point too, leave the deaf kids to their own parents, what business is it of others ?
Wow. That is incredible!
I don't see how eradicating a population will be of any good to anyone. Who is to say this will actually bring these children to "normal" hearing anyways. I would NEVER allow my children to go through something as experimental as this, even with their own cord blood. Being deaf is nothing to be ashamed about, it is something to be treasured.
what If I turn 50 years old in few years then I think I am too old to be candidate on stem cells procedure for my curiosity but I am happy who I am. I enjoy every minutes of my life now.
that Deaf Girl,
Nothing to be ashamed about on wanting to hear better whether it's hearing aids, Esteem implant, cochlear implant or stem cells. For those who like sound treasure it and see it as a gift.
Researchers are working on adult stem cells and even that looks promising. Although we may have to wait a little longer for that. I'd give it several more years or so for some kind of an announcement.
Amazing achievement and it does all the wonders how DNA can rebuild your broken organs. If there is a stem cell to cure my deafness today, I wouldn't take that option unless if they have on/off switch option. Using my CI within a hearing range as stem cell does, I wouldn't want to continue to hear outdoor nature during my bedtime. I'm spoiled to have this option and ability to control the volume, bass, treble, etc. I would stick with CI.
Russell
You conveniently left out all of the qualifying statements from the actual physicians and researchers in an attempt to portray this as something it is not. Intellectual dishonesty on your part. The very doctors and researchers involved with this case have stated, right there in the very article you reference, that they cannot say that this treatment is responsible for any improvement. Pah. Just more of your wishful thinking about your own hatred of your hearing loss.
Of course, since you censor any comment that points out your fallacy, we all know this will not be posted so that others can actually read the truth.
Anony @12:30PM,
Yet the hearing loss went from extreme to moderate. I made a point that we will see what the results are this July and again in January 2013:
"We will know more once the Cooper family head back to Texas in July, and again in January of 2013, to get a more detailed assessment of Madeline’s improvement."
Only then will it be more of a confirmation that this treatment is actually working. Nothing was conveniently left out. The article even stated that:
"Madeline’s parents have a reason to be cautiously optimistic. Two of three preliminary tests after the treatment in January showed improvement in the girl’s hearing, the family said."
And I made a point that results will be assessed again in July 2012 and January 2013 to help further boost the confirmation of this procedure is working. If hearing went from extreme to moderate hearing loss, that alone doesn't sound to much like a fallacy. Nothing was left out. The readers can read the rest of the article in the link I provided.
By the same convention, it's people like you who try and dictate how people must feel about their hearing loss or how people love listening to sound, music or the ability to converse. But you're a nobody...an anonymous person with nothing to give anything of weight.
Russell,
That's your choice. Others want to be free of a device and experience the full richness of natural sound and not worry about swimming or taking a shower. The rich natural sound would be a boon to those who enjoy music, even the piano. A whole new level of sound richness never before heard.
Besides, ear plugs can be worn before going to bed. In fact, this Sunday recently while at a park with the warm sunshine amongst the pine trees with kids laughing and talking nearby at a playground...I dozed off to sleep on the cool grass hearing it. Sounds you hear can be just as soothing to lull you to sleep.
"Sounds you hear can be just as soothing to lull you to sleep."
So true. Even I've ended up napping with a hearing aid on while ppl were conversing. The human body is capable of screening out annoying sounds or including pleasant noise when it wants to nap.
And I'm sure it will be no different for a deaf person who becomes hearing via stem cell treatment or wears a CI.
Ann_C
There is a certain poster in one deaf/hh discussion forum who obviously do not understand what he/she is saying that cord blood stem cells (from a baby's own cord blood) must be experimented on animals first before applying it on the same baby. This medical experiment would be a completely fruitless endeavor. The cord blood stem cells is compatible ONLY to the baby. It won't work on animals which is quite stupid to even suggest that idea because it's not even medically feasible in the first place. Logic is lost there.
As for Lotus, who once said "It's your life, your ears. Do want YOU want, it doesn't matter what we think" who talks about projection and wanting to hear (which goes against what she said earlier), let's say that there is nothing wrong in wanting to hear whether with a hearing aid, CI, Esteem Envoy implant or in the future stem cells. Since she is profoundly deaf she can never understand the full beauty of sound but for those who grew up listening, understanding and appreciating the sounds around me it's a natural progression on wanting to hear sound in a much more natural environment. I was born deaf, raised hoh. Instead of guessing, Lotus (or DC, yes I have proof), check with the right sources the next time you blab.
There is no classification of deafness as "extreme." The fact that you and the author of the article use incorrect terminology when referring to this kid's baseline scores is evidence that neither one of you understand what you are attempting to convince others you do understand.
Many children, particularly those whose etiology is congentital exposure to CMV, will have a baseline score before any intervention of profound or severe to profound. Once they are aided and begin to learn to use their residual hearing, those scores improve. The reason the doctors will not say, definitively, that this treatment is responsible for her improved response to sound, is variables such as the one I have just mentioned. Perhaps it is you who needs to follow your own advice and check the right resources before attempting to engage in intellectual dishonesty.
Let's see if you will post this one, too.
anony@6:30 AM...
Dishonesty? While you hide behind anonymously?
As for "extreme" you are right there is no such thing which I failed to put in quotes. We can assume that extreme it could either be profound hearing loss or severe hearing loss. As far as the Coopers are concerned there appears to be an improvement in hearing gains. Again, I made a point in my blog that more info on this improvement won't be known in greater details until later either this year or next. Meaning a confirmation (from doctors) is needed to see if indeed this gain was the result of cord blood stem cells.
You have something against cord blood stem cells for the treatment of sensorineural loss (if indeed becomes a proven)?
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