The promise of autologous and allogeneic cellular therapies in the clinical trials of autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a consortium of developmental conditions. As scientists have not yet identified the exact underlying cause for these disorders, it is not easy to narrow down a singular therapy to propose a reliable cure. The preponderance of research suggests that stem-cell therapy improves aspects of outcome measure scales in patients with ASD; therefore, future studies should give us more confidence in the results. This overview considers the data that have emerged from the small set of published trials conducted using different approaches in stem-cell therapy for ASD, evaluates their results and proposes additional steps that could be taken if this field of endeavor is to be pursued further.