Journal of Clinical Case Reports

Cellular Therapy, a Novel Treatment Option for Intellectual Disability: A Case Report

Abstract

Sharma A, Sane H, Pooja Kulkarni, Akshya Nagrulkar, Nandini Gokulchandran, Prerna Badhe and Akshata Shetty

Intellectual Disability is a non progressive developmental condition which significantly affects cognition, learning and adaptive behavior of an individual. Currently, there is no treatment available for intellectual disability. However, the therapies available focus mainly on the symptoms of the patient and do not address its core neuropathology. Neurorestorative strategies such as cellular therapy may benefit in these disorders. To study the effect of cellular therapy in intellectual disability, we administered a 13 year old boy with autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells, intrathecally. As a part of the protocol, he was also put on a personalized rehabilitation program. Follow up was done at 3 months and 6 months. No major adverse events were recorded post intervention. In a period of 6 months, he showed improved eye contact, cognition, learning ability, behavior and ability to perform activities of daily living. His score on Functional Independence Measure increased from 67 to 76. On comparing the pre and post PET CT scan, improvement in metabolic activity of hippocampus, left amygdala and cerebellum was recorded. These changes correlated to the functional outcome. These changes suggest that cellular therapy in combination with rehabilitation may repair the neuronal networks in intellectual disability, hence improving processing of information. It was found to be a safe and effective therapeutic modality. Hence, cellular therapy may provide hope for patients and caregivers to improve their quality of life.