In the US, it is home to about 1 million people living with Parkinson’s disease, and 90,000 people get new diagnoses each year, but the race is under treatment.
Researchers at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) have announced their advancements on the frontline. They have developed a new treatment to treat advanced Parkinson’s disease using stem cells.
In a phase 1 trial, researchers used donated stem cells (taken from early stage embryos) to create neurons (neurons) and implanted them into the brains of 12 Parkinsonian patients, according to a press release from MSK.
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When cells are injected, they produce dopamine, a hormone in the brain, which helps them move and coordinate.
(One characteristic of Parkinson’s disease is low levels of dopamine, causing typical symptoms of tremors, stiffness, balance issues and walking difficulties.)
Around 1 million people live with Parkinson’s disease in the United States, and 90,000 people receive new diagnoses each year. (istock)
Eighteen months later, the injected cells “consolidated the brain without any serious side effects,” the researchers reported.
Based on MDS-Updrs, a symptom rating scale developed by the International Parkinson and Movement Disers Society, participants experienced a “significant improvement,” particularly the group receiving a higher dose.
Patients in the high-dose group reported an additional 2.7 hours of “on-time” daily.
“Neurologists usually say things get a little worse each year with this disease, meaning the score goes up a few points,” researchers at Lorenz Studer, director of MSK’s Center for STEM Cell Biology, said in a press release.
“In our study, not only did the score not deteriorate, but we also dropped by over 20 points in the high-dose group.”
The researchers used donated stem cells (taken from early stage embryos) to create neurons (neurons) and implanted them into the brains of 12 Parkinson’s patients. (istock)
On average, patients in the high-dose group reported an additional 2.7 hours of “on-time” indicating a period of normal functioning with minimal symptoms – “a very meaningful outcome for daily life.”
Given the success of the Phase 1 trial, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved researchers to go directly to the Phase 3 clinical trial in a much larger group of patients (approximately 100) in the first half of 2025.
The findings were published in Nature.
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“This study showed that certain neurons develop from human embryonic stem cells in the lab and inject them into the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease and holds important promises as potential future treatments.”
“The results of this work have lasted over decades, so the findings were rewarding.”
“Major Step”
Dr. Mary Anne Picone, medical director of the MS Center at Holy Nam Medical Center in Teenick, New Jersey, said cells for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease could not only slow down the disorder, but could also stop progression and lead to improved motor function.
“There are risks to the immunosuppression required before the stem cell transplantation and the procedure itself, but it will be a major step in replacing dopaminergic neurons lost in the disease.”
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Currently, levodopa, the first-line treatment for Parkinson’s disease, is limited in that patients require more dosages over time.
Eighteen months later, the injected cells “consolidated the brain without any serious side effects,” the researchers reported. (istock)
Dr. Anne Murray, director of the Movement Disorders at the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute in West Virginia, called the study “incredibly exciting” for people with Parkinson’s disease.
“The goal of this particular research project was to ensure safety, but getting a significant clinical improvement in UPDRS is absolutely groundbreaking,” Murray told Fox News Digital. (She was not involved in the research.)
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“This is just the first step to approving this type of treatment for patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease, but this is an incredible first step for the potential benefits of stem cell brain therapy.”
Potential limitations
There were several limitations related to the study, Tabar noted.
“This is a small study designed to demonstrate safety. It’s important to carry out larger, better controlled studies to prove that treatments actually work.
“This is an incredible first step for the potential benefits of stem cell brain therapy.”
However, these early findings “suggest a strong promise.”
“I think we can say that stem cells, if they come from properly and differentiate, have a big promise to one day repair the brain under Parkinson’s disease or potentially other conditions,” Tabal said.
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Cell therapy was developed at MSK and approved by Bluerock Therapeutics in Massachusetts and funded the study.
