Research into the capacity of stem cells to repair cerebral lesions in the premature newborn

PROJECT LEADERS

Dr Pierre Gressens, Director of Research Inserm, Director of UMR 676 , University of Paris Diderot, Assistant- Director of the PremUp Foundation.
Pr Olivier Baud, Professor of Neonatology and Director of an Inserm Avenir team.

Context

The brain of the premature baby is an extremely vulnerable organ as it is still immature at this stage of gestation and very susceptible to inflammation. It can also suffer the repercussions of the lack of oxygen frequently experienced by the premature newborn during the birth process and first few days of life. The neurological record of the premature newborn unfortunately provides little information. It is only later that problems in learning to walk, in language acquisition, behaviour, sight, hearing, and scholastic progress become apparent.
Every year 2.000 extremely premature and moderately premature babies unfortunately have severe handicaps and suffer from both motor and intellectual deficiencies including severe retardation. If stem cells have demonstrated the capacity to repair the adult brain, it is worrying that there is a total lack of studies directly linked to the restorative capacity of stem cells in the area of perinatal cerebral lesions. It is essential that, after preliminary consideration of several strategic questions, we carry out studies on this subject.

Objectives

• Provide proof that the strategy of cellular therapy offers hope of repairing cerebral lesions in the premature newborn.
• Select the types of stem cells that should be used.
• Determine the stage of differentiation at which stem cells should be before the transplant.
• Establish how much time one has after birth to transplant the stem cells.
• Understand the mechanism of the action of transplanted stem cells.
• Evaluate the risk of tumour development.

Added value of PremUp Foundation

The PremUp teams have unique pre-clinical and clinical expertise in the domain of research into the brain of the premature baby and are already prepared to test medication in clinical trials. They also have the expertise necessary to validate other neuro-protective strategies.
One of the PremUp teams recently obtained experimental proof that transplanting neural cells could offer strong neuro-protection in a model of perinatal cerebral lesions in mice. This as a promising first stage in the exploration of cellular therapy.

Projected budget

Budget over 3 years	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	TOTAL
Material	30.000			30.000
Consumables	50.000	50.000	50.000	150.000
Student research for thesis	40.000	40.000	40.000	120.000
Administration costs of the project (5 % of the total amount)	6.000	4.500	4.500	15.000
	126.000	94.500	94.500	315.000