Parkinson’s Disease May Have Link to Stroke
Injecting stem cells into the brain reverses Parkinson’s symptoms in monkeys
August 30, 2017
Injecting neurons created from stem cells into the brain may relieve Parkinson’s symptoms, according to a new study in monkeys.
Why it matters:
Parkinson’s disease can happen when some of a
person’s dopamine-producing brain cells die, so replacing those neurons
could be an effective treatment. Administering dopamine is part of
currently accepted treatment, but over time the treatment has less
effect as neurons die off and the side effects become difficult to
manage. So scientists have begun studying approaches using stem cells,
primarily in rodents. A clinical trial is also underway at the Royal
Melbourne Hospital to inject neural stem cells into the brains of people
with Parkinson’s as part of a Phase I clinical trial. Results are
expected in 2019, and preliminary results were presented at the American Academy of Neurology meeting this year.
The nitty-gritty:
Researchers collected skin or blood cells from
seven humans, some who had Parkinson’s disease and some who did not.
(The people with Parkinson’s did not have any of the genes thought to be
associated with the disease.) Next, using sets of proteins, they
“reprogrammed” some of those cells and encouraged them to grow up as
neurons — specifically, neurons that could produce dopamine. Finally,
they injected the stem cells into the brains of monkeys that were
treated with a neurotoxin, which made them act like they had the
condition.
Researchers found that the symptoms of the monkeys treated
with stem cells from either group improved more over the course of a
year than monkeys treated with a placebo injection. To determine if the
monkey’s symptoms had improved, the team evaluated their tremors,
movements, and posture, among other things. The team published its
results in Nature on Wednesday.
“I think that a stem cell-based therapy will bring more
benefits than conventional treatments can do now,” said Dr. Jun
Takahashi, a professor at Kyoto University and one of the authors of the
paper.You should know:
Among conventional treatments for Parkinson’s is a medication called L-DOPA, which ultimately helps patients replace some of the dopamine they can no longer produce. Another accepted procedure is deep brain stimulation, which sparked Takahashi’s interest in this project, he said.Takahashi and his team did not run tests comparing their results to those seen after deep-brain stimulation and L-DOPA treatment, but they did compare their findings to published statistics. They concluded that the transplants “should exert [similar] effects.”
What they’re saying:
Dr. Lorenz Studer, director of the center for stem cell biology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said Takahashi’s work was “a very impressive study,” especially given the number of animals, the length of time they were followed, and the similarity of the protocols used to those that might be used in human trials. “In this regard, it was a really interesting test run,” he said.
“It is probably the best study to date using the induced pluripotent
stem cells,” said Studer, who was not involved in the research.
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