'Back To Life': Trial Project Bringing Dead Alive Wins Approval

A breakthrough trial that is going to examine the possibility of regenerating the brains of dead people has won approval in the US, according to reports. Biotech Company Bioquark has been given ethical permission to test whether parts of the central nervous system can be brought back to life in people who have died from a traumatic brain injury.

As per a report published in The Telegraph, Bioquark can recruit 20 patients who have been declared clinically dead from a traumatic brain injury. The scientists will use a combination of therapies to bring patients out of coma, including techniques like nerve stimulation, deploying lasers as well as injecting the brain with a mix of peptides and stem cells.

The trial patients, comprising of only those who have been certified dead and kept alive through life support, will be observed over a course of several months. Brain imaging equipment and MRI scans will be used to look for regeneration signs, especially in the upper spinal cord which is the brain stem's lowest region that controls heartbeat and independent breathing.

The team of scientists working on the breakthrough trial is speculating that brain stem cells may be able to erase their history and restart life again, based on their surrounding tissue. A similar process has been observed in the animal kingdom, particularly in amphibians like salamanders that can regrow whole limbs.

"This represents the first trial of its kind and another step towards the eventual reversal of death in our lifetime. We just received approval for our first 20 subjects and we hope to start recruiting patients immediately from this first site," said Dr Ira Pastor, CEO of Bioquark Inc. "To undertake such a complex initiative, we are combining biologic regenerative medicine tools with other existing medical devices typically used for stimulation of the central nervous system, in patients with other severe disorders of consciousness. We hope to see results within the first two to three months."

Called ReAnima Project, the trial has just received approach from an Institutional Review Board at the National Institutes of Health in India and the US, and the scientists plan to recruit patients immediately. Over a period of six weeks, peptides will be introduced into the spinal cord through a pump and stem cell will be given biweekly.

Incidentally, brain stem deaths indicate a state where an individual doesn't have brain stem functions any longer, and the possibility of consciousness and breathing is lost. A person is pronounced clinically dead when the brain stem function is lost permanently. However, a body pronounced brain dead can still heal wounds, mature sexually, grow, balance hormones, digest, excrete, circulate blood and even deliver a baby. As per the representatives of Bioquark, the trial project will also enable the scientists to get a unique insight into brain death in humans. The study will have important connotations in the future, especially regarding therapeutic developments associated with extreme disorders of consciousness like minimally conscious, vegetative states and coma, as well as a host of degenerative CNS conditions, including Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's.