Adult human neural stem cell therapeutics： Currentdevelopmental status and prospect

Over the past two decades, regenerative therapies usingstem cell technologies have been developed for variousneurological diseases. Although stem cell therapy is anattractive option to reverse neural tissue damage and torecover neurological deficits, it is still under developmentso as not to show significant treatment effects in clinicalsettings. In this review, we discuss the scientific andclinical basics of adult neural stem cells （aNSCs）, andtheir current developmental status as cell therapeuticsfor neurological disease. Compared with other typesof stem cells, aNSCs have clinical advantages, suchas limited proliferation, inborn differentiation potentialinto functional neural cells, and no ethical issues. Inspite of the merits of aNSCs, difficulties in the isolationfrom the normal brain, and in the in vitro expansion,have blocked preclinical and clinical study using aNSCs.However, several groups have recently developed noveltechniques to isolate and expand aNSCs from normaladult brains, and showed successful applications ofaNSCs to neurological diseases. With new technologiesfor aNSCs and their clinical strengths, previous hurdlesin stem cell therapies for neurological diseases could beovercome, to realize clinically efficacious regenerativestem cell therapeutics.