Cellular therapies

Coordinators


Anne-Catherine Bachoud-Lévi, MD-PhD

Head of Neurology Department, Henri Mondor Hospital
Coordinator of the Huntington's disease national reference centre, Henri Mondor Hospital

Anselme Perrier, PhD

Inserm Research Director (DR2)
CEA Research Department, MIRCen

Intra-cerebral transplant can provide some functional benefit to patients suffering from neurological disorders in particular when neurodegeneration is localised and affects a limited number of neuronal subtypes as for patients suffering from Parkinson’s or Huntington’s disease.

Homotypic neuronal progenitors derived from human pluripotent cells (embryonic or reprogrammed) represent a therapeutic alternative to fetal tissues, the use of which remains complicated, as revealed by clinical trials already published or in progress.

However, to make the use of stem cells for cell therapy commonplace, the factors predicting the success of these transplants in patients, which are still difficult to assess, must be rapidly identified.

Over the past decade, clinical trials have provided evidence of the benefit of foetal neuron transplantation in neurodegenerative diseases therapy in particular in Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

In this field, “Multicentric Intracrebral Grafting in Huntington‘s disease” remains the most advanced program currently conducted (A.-C. Bachoud-Levi) : MIG-HD has already enrolled 46 transplanted patients in various centres in France and Belgium with a mean follow-up duration of 5 years.

This work has highlighted some of the challenges to be overcome in future clinical trials. It also demonstrated the feasibility and potential therapeutic efficacy of these intracerebral transplantation approaches, paving the way for new cell therapy strategies for Huntington's disease and other brain diseases.

In parallel, several researh teams have explored the potential of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) for intracerebral grafts. The aim is to assess their therapeutic potential both in vitro and in small and large animal models as well as the safety issues raised by the use of hPSC 1-3 in humans.

The objective of the NeurAtris research program « Cellular therapies » is to develop new methodologies to foster the translation of successful experimental cell therapies for neurological disorders to the clinic and to determine how to improve this therapies.

The methodological developments implemented concern :
  • At the preclinical level: on the quality control of grafts derived from research-grade stem cells, and their conversion into cells usable in in vitro and in vivo clinical trials,
  • At the clinical level: on immunological and neurological issues, data processing, regulatory and ethical issues specific to phase I and II clinical trials using pluri- and/or multi-potent stem cell derivatives.
Track Records
Neurolead
Coordinator : Theranexus
Partners : CEA – Collège de France
Funding : Bpifrance
Project duration : 2019-2023
Monitoring the clinical status of Huntington's disease patients through automated voice and speech analysis
Coordinator : AC. Bachoud-Lévi (Mondor)
Partners : Henri Mondor Hospital - UPEC - Ecole Normale Supérieure, Laboratory of Cognitive Sciences and Psycholinguistics: Dr. Dupoux
Developing a New Assessment Protocol for Assessment of Complex Therapies in Huntington's Disease
Acronyme : CAPIT-HD2
Coordinator : AC. Bachoud-Lévi (Mondor)
Partners : Henri Mondor Hospital - UPEC - Cardiff University: Anne Rosser/ George Huntington Institute in Münster: Dr. Ralf Reilmann
Innovative Imaging and cognitive biomarkers to predict Huntington Disease progression
Acronyme : I2BIO-HD
Coordinator : V. GAURA (CEA/ MIRCen)
Partners : CEA-MIRCen Henri Mondor Hospital - UPEC - BIO DMU Medicine
Funding : ANR/DGOS
Project duration : 2021-2025
Prediction of cerebrovascular accidents prognosis
Coordinator : P. Bartolomeo (ICM)
Partners : Henri Mondor Hospital - UPEC - ICM - Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital
Funding : ANR/DGOS
Project duration : 2021-2025
Study of the effect of caffeine on the evolution of the disease in pre-manifest HD patients
Acronyme : CREAM HD
Coordinator : C. Simonin (LiCEND)
Partners : Henri Mondor Hospital - UPEC - CHU de Amiens, CHU de Angers, CHU Pellegrin, CHU de Grenoble, CHRU Lille, CHU Montpellier, CHU de Nancy, AP-HP La Pitié-Salpétrière, CHU Purpan