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Scientists Get Closer to Stem-Cell Treatments for Parkinson's Patients
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June 13, 2007
New research published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by researchers from Yale University in Connecticut, suggests that injection of human neural stem cells directly into the brains of monkeys may one day lead to similar treatments for human Parkinson's patients.
The scientists induced Parkinson's symptoms in monkeys. Some of the symptoms were so severe that the monkeys had difficulty walking, showed very little movement, slowed movement responses. Then the scientists injected the monkeys with human neural stem cells. The monkeys were followed for sixty days. Monkeys that received stem cell injections improved significantly compared to the controls. The researchers noticed improvement in areas such as the ability to sit, walk, feed oneself.
The researchers then tried to determine where exactly the stem cells had gone. It turned out that they all went and did different things. But says, Eugene Redmond, lead author on the paper, they all stayed within the dopanergic system. Before this research gets to the clinic says Redmond they need to study the animals for longer, at least 18 months to two years. The good new in the short term is that none of the animals in this study developed tumors. The bad news is that outside of embryonic stem cell transfer developing a new treatment drug will be very difficult, because the cells that are being lost, are the cells that that are required to process the drug treatment.
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