Stem cell therapy in patients with epilepsy: A systematic review

Purpose: The existing evidence of the potential applications and benefits of stem cell transplantation (SCT) in people with epilepsy and also its adverse effects in humans were systematically reviewed. Methods: MEDLINE (accessed from PubMed), Google Scholar, and Scopus from inception to August 17, 2020 were systematically reviewed for related published manuscripts. The following key words (in the title) were used: stem cell AND epilepsy OR seizure. Articles written in English that were human studies on stem cell transplantation in people with epilepsy were all included. Results: We could identify six related articles. Because of their different methodologies, performing a metaanalysis was not feasible; they included 38 adults and 81 pediatric patients together. Five studies were singlearm human studies; there were no serious adverse events in any of the studies. Conclusion: While stem cell transplantation seems like a promising therapeutic option for patients with drugresistant epilepsy, data on its application is scarce and of low quality. For now, clinical stem cell-based interventions are not justified. Perhaps, in the future, there will be a rigorous and intensely scrutinized clinical trial protocol with informed consent that could provide enough scientific merit and could meet the required ethical standards.

Automated summary

Six related articles regarding the effects of stem cell transplantation in patients with epilepsy were reviewed, showing no serious adverse events and insufficient data for clinical application. The effectiveness of clinical stem cell-based interventions is currently unproven.