NEW YORK – Aspen Neuroscience on Wednesday said it has dosed the first patient in a first-in-human trial of ANPD001, its autologous neuronal cell replacement therapy for moderate-to-severe Parkinson's disease.
The Phase I/IIa trial, dubbed ASPIRO, is a multicenter, open-label study to assess safety and tolerability of two sequential escalating doses of ANPD001. The therapy involves generating induced pluripotent stem cells from a sample of a patient's own skin cells, which are differentiated into dopaminergic neuron precursors and transplanted back into the patient. The process aims to replace cells that have been lost or damaged due to Parkinson's.
The first patient was dosed at Banner-University Medical Center Tucson in Arizona, which is one of five clinical sites participating in the clinical trial.
"The initiation of this clinical trial is a major milestone in Aspen's mission to develop and deliver personalized, regenerative neurologic therapies for people with unmet medical needs, starting with Parkinson's disease," Aspen Neuroscience President and CEO Damien McDevitt said in a statement.