Cell Implants: Another step towards Parkinson’s Cure
Published: December 15, 2005
A team of US scientists from the Alabama University have stimulated closer to emerging a brain implant analysis suggesting that the implants of cells from the human retina improved motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Cell Implants: Another step towards Parkinson’s Cure Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by tremor, rigidity, postural instability and slowed ability to start and continue movements. Most patients with PD require therapy with the medication levodopa to control symptoms three to five years after a diagnosis of PD.
Patients are generally given help controlling these symptoms with the drug levadopa, which elevates characteristically low levels of the chemical dopamine in the brain.
But the pills can be counterproductive and prompt the development of other movement problems such as twitches.
This new approach involved taking levadopa producing eye cells taken from a dead donor and implanting the directly into the brains of six Parkinsons’ patients monitoring their progress, finding the implants were tolerated well. The researchers reported no serious side effects.
Eye cells that form retinal pigment epithelial tissue produce levodopa and can be isolated from human eye tissue and implanted in the brain. Research on animals has shown that the cell implants can help treat the symptoms safely.
The retina cells were cultivated and implanted in the brains of six patients with advanced Parkinson’s, said researcher Natividad Stover of the University of Alabama.
One year later, the patients scored 48 per cent higher on tests of movement and coordination, and the improvement was sustained after two years, Stover wrote in the report.
“Improvement was also observed in activities of daily living, quality of life, and motor fluctuations,” the researchers maintain.
The group has now embarked on a randomized and controlled study to demonstrate more objectively the effectiveness and safety of the treatment.
The study appears in the Archives of Neurology.
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