In a new study, Jeffrey Cordauer and his colleagues describe the process by which cells transform into
Neurodegenerative diseases damage anddestroy neurons, and also undermine both mental and physical health. Parkinson's disease, which affects more than 10 million people worldwide, is no exception. The most obvious symptoms of Parkinson's disease occur after the disease damages a specific class of neurons located in the midbrain. The effect is to deprive the brain of dopamine, a key neurotransmitter produced by affected neurons.
The authors of the new work showed that one groupThe experimentally engineered cells perform optimally in terms of survival, growth, neural connections, and dopamine production when implanted in rat brains. As a result, after this transplantation, it was possible to effectively eliminate the motor symptoms caused by Parkinson's disease.
These pluripotent stem cells are functionallyare indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells, which actively proliferate during embryonic development and migrate to different parts of the body. They turn into the heart, nerves, lungs and other types of cells.
Stem cell replacement therapy isa radical new strategy for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. The approach is about to be tested in the world's first clinical trial on patients with Parkinson's disease.
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