Animals’ Cured of Parkinson’s Disease with Stem Cells
Recently published research shows that a cure for Parkinson’s disease could could be developed with a patient’s own stem cells.
The Griffith University researchers published a paper in Stem Cells journal showing that adult stem cells taken from the noses of human Parkinson’s patients gave rise to dopamine-producing brain cells when transplanted into the brain of a rat.
The neurologic symptoms of Parkinson’s disease including loss of muscle control occur due to degeneration of cells that make the critical chemical dopamine in the brain.
Current prescription drug treatments try to replace dopamine in the brain which is missing–often these drugs become less effective over time.
Professor Alan Mackay-Sim said researchers created Parkinson’s symptoms in lab rats by giving them lesions on one side of their brain resembling the damage Parkinson’s disease creates in the brain.
Lesions to one side of the brain caused the animals to run in circles, Mackay-Sim said.
Stem cells taken from the noses of Parkinson’s patients were injected into the damaged brain areas of the rats. The rats then regained the ability to move in a straight line.
Animals transplanted with the human brain stem cells had a dramatic improvement in the rate of rotation within 3 weeks,” Mackay-Sim said.
Cells had differentiated into dopamine-making neurons influenced by the environment of the brain. Other tests also showed the presence of dopamine.
None of the transplants led to formation of tumors or teratomas in the host lab rats which has occurred in embryonic stem cell transplants in other similar models.
He said like all stem cells, stem cells from the olfactory nerve in the nose are ‘naïve’ having not yet differentiated into which sort of cells they will give rise to.
Advantages of using a patient’s own cells are great. A person’s own stem cells are not rejected by the immune system, so patients will be free from a lifetime of dangerous immune suppressing drug therapy.
Professor Mackay-Simpreviously developed a world-first technique that showing that olfactory (from the nose) adult stem cells can be turned into heart, nerve, liver and brain cells.
