Australian scientists are on the brink of a discovery that could change treatment of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Transplanting stem cells could be the next big thing in PD therapy they claim.
People with the neurodegenerative brain condition gradually lose dopamine-producing neurons, affecting their motor skills and causing their limbs to shake. Eventually the patient is completely immobilized due to muscle rigidity.
Australian scientists have come up with a way to effectively reprogram embryonic stem cells so they can act like the dopamine neurons and it is hoped one day they can be transplanted into the brains of Parkinson's patients.
One of the scientists who helped develop the technique, Dr Lachlan Thomson says the transplant would be a more effective long-term treatment for Parkinson's than current medications. Dr Thompson is a member of a team of scientists at the Florey Neuroscience Institute and University of Melbourne.
Stem cells can be used to allow the body to produce dopamine, which prevents Parkinson's he explained. Until now, treatment of the disease has been very risky due to the possibility of some of the stem cells becoming carcinogenic. “We have made some recent progress in that area by identifying novel molecules on the therapeutic cells that allow us to target them and essentially pull them out and purify them…I think that will really potentially be an important breakthrough on the road to clinical translation. I think once this safety issue is resolved we are really going to be much closer; and there is no reason to think it couldn't happen within the next five to 10 years, and there's no reason to think it couldn't happen in Australia,” he said.
Researchers reveal cellular foundations of functional brain networks in humans