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Stem cells will now fight Parkinson’s
News:
- Recently, Japanese scientists announced the first human trial to treat Parkinson’s disease by injecting stem cells into brain, building on an earlier trial on primates.
Important facts:
- The research team at Kyoto University plans to inject five million induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells, which have the potential to develop into any cell in the body, into a patient’s brain.
- The clinical test will consist seven participants aged between 50 and 69.
- The university will monitor the conditions of the patients for two years after the operation.
- They also confirmed that the iPS cells had not transformed into tumors during the two years after the implant.
- The iPS cells from healthy donors will be developed into dopamine-producing brain cells, which are no longer present in people with Parkinson’s disease.
- The clinical trials come after the researchers successfully used iPS cells to restore functioning brain cells in monkeys last year.
- In 2014, Riken, a Japanese government-backed research institution, carried out the world’s first surgery to implant iPS cells to treat a patient with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a common medical condition that can lead to blindness in older people.
9.iPS cells:
- iPS cells are created by stimulating mature, already specialised, cells back into a juvenile state — basically cloning without the need for an embryo.
- These can be derived from the patient, making them less likely to be rejected, while also sidestepping ethical qualms about taking cells from embryos.
- The cells can be transformed into a range of different types of cells, and their use is a key sector of medical research.
- Parkinson’s disease:
- Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that affects the body’s motor system, often causing shaking and other difficulties in movement.
- Globally, about 10 million people have the illness, according to the Parkinson ’s disease Foundation.
