Jay Patel, Class of 2022
Every year, approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in addition to thousands of cases that go unnoticed. Roughly 10 million people in the world are currently living with Parkinson’s disease. Simply put, Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the central nervous system that affects movement and often results in tremors. This neurodegenerative disorder, a disease characterized by the loss of cells of the brain or spinal cord, impacts dopamine producing neurons in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate movement, attention, learning, and emotional responses. Parkinson's often starts with a tremor in one hand, while the symptoms include, but are not limited to, slow movement, stiffness, and loss of balance. This disease that usually affects the older population can be chronic and last for years or even be lifelong. Although the severity of Parkinson’s disease can be assuaged by treatments and medication, a cure for this condition has yet to be discovered.
As of now, the most common method of treating Parkinson’s is through the drug levodopa which increases dopamine production in the brain which in turn alleviates motor symptoms. The issue with such a treatment is that the efficiency of the drug declines over timing and several unwanted side effects begin to rise. As Claire Henchcliffe and Malin Parmar, the co-authors of the study Repairing the Brain: Cell Replacement Using Stem Cell-Based Technologies, put it, “We are in desperate need of a better way of helping people with [Parkinson’s disease]. It is on the increase worldwide. There is still no cure, and medications only go part way to fully treat incoordination and movement problems.”
New research has shown that there is potential in stem cell therapy for treating this neurodegenerative condition. Stem cells are cells with the potential to develop into many different types of cells in the body which can serve as a repair system for the body. There are two main types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. Stem cell research has been applied to various diseases and disorders, mostly because they are unspecialized to begin with. Several decades ago, embryonic stem cells were used from aborted embryos to treat Parkinson’s, however, formidable results were not produced. As reported by Parkinson’s News Today, “If successful, using stem cells as a source of transplantable dopamine-producing nerve cells could revolutionize care of the [Parkinson’s disease] patient in the future. A single surgery could potentially provide a transplant that would last throughout a patient’s lifespan, reducing or altogether avoiding the need for dopamine-based medications.”
The challenge that researchers face is to take the embryonic stem cells and make them all into one cell type, the dopaminergic neurons. This is especially difficult because an embryonic stem cell has the potential to become any cell in your body whether it be liver, skin, heart, or eye to name a few. To recreate embryonic development in a dish, scientists expose stem cells to chemical or physical signals that will cause cellular differentiation, some of which include growth factors, cell culture substrate, and signal inhibition. The possibility of this occurring has been shown by the study from the research group called "Multidisciplinary research focused on Parkinson's disease at Lund University." The cells can divide indefinitely and because they can divide all the time, as many dopamine neurons can be generated as desired. The next step would be producing these cells in large quantities and build cell banks allowing for the implementation on hundreds of patients. Dr. Claire Henchcliffe points out that their research could “open the way to being able to engineer the cells to provide superior treatment, possibly using different types of cells to treat different symptoms of [Parkinson's] like movement problems and memory loss." There are hopes that new methods of transplants specializing on non-motor symptoms could be created if the primary trials with dopamine producing cells are effective. If this stem cell research is proven to be as successful as speculated, the treatment of Parkinson’s disease can be greatly improved and possibly lead to other discoveries that can treat the disease.
References
As of now, the most common method of treating Parkinson’s is through the drug levodopa which increases dopamine production in the brain which in turn alleviates motor symptoms. The issue with such a treatment is that the efficiency of the drug declines over timing and several unwanted side effects begin to rise. As Claire Henchcliffe and Malin Parmar, the co-authors of the study Repairing the Brain: Cell Replacement Using Stem Cell-Based Technologies, put it, “We are in desperate need of a better way of helping people with [Parkinson’s disease]. It is on the increase worldwide. There is still no cure, and medications only go part way to fully treat incoordination and movement problems.”
New research has shown that there is potential in stem cell therapy for treating this neurodegenerative condition. Stem cells are cells with the potential to develop into many different types of cells in the body which can serve as a repair system for the body. There are two main types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. Stem cell research has been applied to various diseases and disorders, mostly because they are unspecialized to begin with. Several decades ago, embryonic stem cells were used from aborted embryos to treat Parkinson’s, however, formidable results were not produced. As reported by Parkinson’s News Today, “If successful, using stem cells as a source of transplantable dopamine-producing nerve cells could revolutionize care of the [Parkinson’s disease] patient in the future. A single surgery could potentially provide a transplant that would last throughout a patient’s lifespan, reducing or altogether avoiding the need for dopamine-based medications.”
The challenge that researchers face is to take the embryonic stem cells and make them all into one cell type, the dopaminergic neurons. This is especially difficult because an embryonic stem cell has the potential to become any cell in your body whether it be liver, skin, heart, or eye to name a few. To recreate embryonic development in a dish, scientists expose stem cells to chemical or physical signals that will cause cellular differentiation, some of which include growth factors, cell culture substrate, and signal inhibition. The possibility of this occurring has been shown by the study from the research group called "Multidisciplinary research focused on Parkinson's disease at Lund University." The cells can divide indefinitely and because they can divide all the time, as many dopamine neurons can be generated as desired. The next step would be producing these cells in large quantities and build cell banks allowing for the implementation on hundreds of patients. Dr. Claire Henchcliffe points out that their research could “open the way to being able to engineer the cells to provide superior treatment, possibly using different types of cells to treat different symptoms of [Parkinson's] like movement problems and memory loss." There are hopes that new methods of transplants specializing on non-motor symptoms could be created if the primary trials with dopamine producing cells are effective. If this stem cell research is proven to be as successful as speculated, the treatment of Parkinson’s disease can be greatly improved and possibly lead to other discoveries that can treat the disease.
References
- Can We Repair the Brain? The Promise of Stem Cell Technologies for Treating Parkinson's Disease. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.journalofparkinsonsdisease.com/can-we-repair-brain-promise-stem-cell-technologies-treating-parkinsons-disease
- Sandoiu, A. (2019, February 18). Parkinson's: How stem cells can help repair the brain. Retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324472.php
- Viviescas, A. (2019, February 21). In Parkinson's, Stem Cell Transplant Could Improve Treatment, Study Says. Retrieved from https://parkinsonsnewstoday.com/2019/02/21/stem-cell-transplant-improve-parkinsons-treatment/
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