LivingBitsAndThings LivingBitsAndThings

Categories

  • Aging Parents
  • Alternative Health
  • Asthma & Lung Disease
  • Beauty
  • Beauty Treatments
  • Cabinet
  • College Issues
  • Couples Counselling
  • Craft
  • Decorating
  • Diets
  • DIY
  • Dogs
  • Elder Care
  • Entertaining
  • Environmentalism
  • Family & Social Concerns
  • Finance
  • Fitness
  • Furnitures
  • Gardening
  • General Medicine
  • Grade School
  • Green Living
  • Growth & Development
  • Health
  • Health Education
  • Home & Garden
  • Home Exterior
  • Home Improvement
  • Home Management
  • Home Renovation
  • Horses & Ponies
  • Infants & Toddlers
  • Interior
  • Irrigating
  • Kitchen
  • Landscaping
  • Mental Health
  • Mind & Soul
  • Motivation
  • Moving Out
  • Natural Medicine
  • Nutrition
  • Parenting
  • Pets
  • Psychology
  • Real Estate
  • Special Needs Parenting
  • Sports Medicine
  • Weight Loss
  • Weight Loss Methods
  • Windows
  • Women’s Health
  • Woodworking
  • Young Adult

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • December 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Sitemap
  • About
  • Contact Us
26K
98K
0
LivingBitsAndThings LivingBitsAndThings
  • Health
    • Alternative Health
    • Beauty
      • Beauty Treatments
    • Diets
    • Fitness
    • General Medicine
      • Arthritis
      • Asthma & Lung Disease
      • Health Education
    • Natural Medicine
    • Nutrition
    • Sports Medicine
    • Weight Loss
      • Weight Loss Methods
    • Women’s Health
  • Home & Garden
    • DIY
      • Craft
    • Gardening
      • Landscaping
        • Irrigating
    • Home Improvement
      • Decorating
      • Furnitures
      • Home Exterior
      • Home Management
      • Home Renovation
      • Interior
      • Kitchen
    • Woodworking
      • Cabinet
  • Parenting
    • Elder Care
      • Aging Parents
      • Seniors
    • Grade School
      • Growth & Development
    • Special Needs Parenting
      • Early Intervention
      • Family & Social Concerns
    • Young Adult
      • College Issues
      • Moving Out
  • Mind & Soul
    • Couples Counselling
    • Psychology
  • Pets
    • Dogs
    • Horses & Ponies
Featured of Stem Cells and Parkinson's Disease
  • General Medicine
  • Health
  • Health Education

Stem Cells and Parkinson’s Disease

  • Perla Irish
  • October 20, 2018
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0
0
0
Table of Contents Hide
  1. The Benefits of Stem Cells Compared to Drugs
  2. The Current State of Stem Cell Trials
  3. Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) and the Future
  4. Protein Based iPSCs
  5. The Continuing Need for Both Types of Stem Cells
    1. References
    2. Author Bio

Parkinson’s disease, caused by the degeneration of dopamine-producing cells, may be among the first conditions to be successfully treated using stem cells.


Parkinson’s disease is a condition in which the neuronal message to the muscles is disrupted, resulting in symptoms such as tremors and the impairment of movement and speech. It is caused by the degeneration of dopamine producing cells in an area of the mid region of the brain known as the substantia nigra.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter – a molecule capable of converting nervous impulses to chemical messages across the synapses, or gaps, between one neurone and the next. It is associated with the control of movement, emotional responses and our ability to experience pleasure and pain.

The Benefits of Stem Cells Compared to Drugs

Various drugs such as Levodopa, Sinemet and the dopamine agonists Requip and Mirapex can either act to initiate more dopamine production or mimic the action of dopamine. However, they ultimately have only limited effectiveness, can cause side effects such as dyskinesias (uncontrolled movements), nausea and confusion and do not reduce the degeneration of the dopamine producing (dopaminergic) nerve cells themselves.

A better and longer lasting treatment would ideally be one where the dopaminergic cells are replaced with healthy ones that can regenerate themselves over the course of the patient’s life. Stem cell therapy, in which differentiated stem cells of embryos or modified adult stem cells, are implanted into the brain, may offer such a solution.

The Current State of Stem Cell Trials

To date, approved scientific trials have only involved the introduction of stem cells to ‘models’ of Parkinson’s disease rather than to human patients themselves. This has usually involved modifying the metabolism of laboratory rats to mimic the symptoms of the disease and then injecting stem cells that have been manipulated into forming dopaminergic cells into the rats.

Researchers at the Michael J. Fox Foundation have found that such trials have been the most successful when embryonic stem cells have been used. It is for this reason that this organization, among others, has campaigned for federal funding for stem cell research since 2001. Although limited funding has been approved over the years, there are still restrictions on the stem cell lines that are available for research purposes.

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) and the Future

Fortunately, an alternative to the use of embryonic stem cells was discovered in 2007. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Kyoto concurrently found that adult human fibroblast cells, commonly found in connective tissue, could be genetically altered to produce the same proteins as embryonic stem cells. This allowed them to become ‘pluripotent’: in other words, capable of differentiating into a variety of specialized cells, including dopaminergic ones. Other research, involving the reprogramming of neural and testicular cells into pluripotent cells, is also currently underway.

Initially, this modification process involved the introduction of genes to the fibroblast cells via a retrovirus. However, the safety and efficacy of this method have been questioned by scientists at the Whitehead Institute and the Harvard Medical School, who have noted that viral vectors can sometimes affect the differentiation potential of fibroblasts or even cause malignant cell growth.

One solution, they claim, is the use of ‘factor free’ iPSCs – induced fibroblast cells in which the viral reprogramming factors have been removed. This involves the use of an enzyme called Cre-recombinase which helps to rid the iPSCs of potentially harmful transgenes.

Parkinson's Disease
Parkinson’s Disease – By BruceBlaus. [CC BY 3.0 ], from Wikimedia Commons

Protein Based iPSCs

Alternatively, Sang-Hun Lee, at Hanyang University, Korea, and Kwang-Soo Kim, at Harvard Medical School have developed iPSCs in which the required reprogramming proteins are themselves introduced into fibroblast cells, thus obviating the need for virus delivered transgenes. When these ‘protein based’ iPSCs were implanted into rats modeling Parkinson’s disease the symptoms appeared to be alleviated.

Whether or not any one particular method is more successful than the other, it appears clear that iPSCs are offering new hope and a possible alternative to the ethical issues surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells. Recent tests at the Universities of Göttingen and Tübingen have, moreover, shown that iPSC derived dopaminergic cells can be delivered to rats via nasal sprays rather than by injections. Scientists involved with this research found that the cells became successfully incorporated into the rat brain tissue, surviving and producing dopamine for up to six months.

The Continuing Need for Both Types of Stem Cells

Despite the moderate success of iPSCs, researchers are in agreement that funding for embryonic stem (ES) cell research needs to continue, if only so that the effects of iPSCs can be regularly compared to ES cells in the lab. According to University of Michigan sociologist Owen Smith, 62.1% of current scientific papers on stem cell research involved using both iPS and ES cells together.

At any rate, apart from the complexities of manipulating stem cells to form dopaminergic cells, there are still questions regarding the quality and quantity of dopamine production by these cells if, and when, they are incorporated into Parkinson’s patients. Immune rejection, even of dopaminergic cells derived from the patient’s own body, remains a distinct possibility. In the words of famous Parkinson’s sufferer, Michael J. Fox, the struggle for a cure for this disease constantly involves ‘one step forward and two steps back.’

References

  • Euro Stem Cell, What is Parkinson’s Disease and Can Stem Cells Help?, Eurostemcell.org
  • Journal of Clinical Investigation, The promise of stem cells in Parkinson disease, https://www.jci.org/articles/view/24012
  • Stem Cell Treatments, Ivanhoe.com
  • Kiessling, Ph.D., The State of the Stem Cell, bedfordresearch.org
  • Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Stem Cells and Parkinson’s Disease, michaeljfox.org
  • Science Daily, Dramatic Improvement in Parkinson Disease Symptoms Following Intranasal Delivery of Stem Cells to Rat Brains, sciencedaily.com
  • Soldner et. al, Whitehead Institute, Harvard Medical School, Parkinson’s Disease Patient-Derived Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Free of Viral Reprogramming Factors, Open Archive, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2009.02.013, PDF

Author Bio

Zoe Bianchi – I’m an Australian secondary Science teacher, and have had over eighteen years experience teaching Senior Biology, Senior Chemistry, and Junior Science. I have recently completed a Master’s Degree in Science Education, which covered units in Environmental Science, Biotechnology and Forensic Science. In 2005 I had a set of Senior Biology teacher resource books published by Titan Education. My writing interests include Climate Change, Biotechnology, Bioethics, Botany and Education.


Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Related Topics
  • biotech
  • cells
  • disease
  • embryonic
  • parkinson
  • pharmaceuticals
Perla Irish

You May Also Like
What to Do If You Suspect You Have Undiagnosed Autism
View Post
  • General Medicine
  • Health
  • Health Education

What to Do If You Suspect You Have Undiagnosed Autism

  • Perla Irish
  • December 29, 2022
Here Is Why Sitting Too Long Can Be Dangerous for Your Child
View Post
  • General Medicine
  • Health
  • Health Education
  • Parenting

Here Is Why Sitting Too Long Can Be Dangerous for Your Child

  • Perla Irish
  • December 28, 2022
What Causes Frozen Shoulder
View Post
  • General Medicine
  • Health
  • Health Education

What Causes Frozen Shoulder? Adhesive Capsulitis: Stages, Causes & Management

  • Perla Irish
  • December 26, 2022
View Post
  • Gardening
  • Health
  • Home & Garden
  • Natural Medicine

Purslane – The Omega-3 Champion of Leafy Vegetables

  • Perla Irish
  • August 21, 2022
Featured - Top 5 Health Benefits of Reading Daily
View Post
  • Health
  • Mental Health
  • Mind & Soul
  • Motivation

Top 5 Health Benefits of Reading Daily

  • Perla Irish
  • August 14, 2022
Featured image - Wrist Ganglion Cysts, What You Need to Know to Avoid Surgery
View Post
  • Alternative Health
  • General Medicine
  • Health
  • Natural Medicine

Wrist Ganglion Cysts, What You Need to Know to Avoid Surgery

  • Perla Irish
  • September 30, 2021
View Post
  • Alternative Health
  • Health
  • Natural Medicine

Little Known Secret Healing Powers of Turmeric Spice

  • Perla Irish
  • October 25, 2020
Featured image - What You Should Know About Disinfectants and Hand Sanitizers Compliance in Canada
View Post
  • Health

What You Should Know About Disinfectants and Hand Sanitizers Compliance in Canada

  • Perla Irish
  • July 10, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

LivingBitsAndThings LivingBitsAndThings
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Sitemap
  • About
  • Contact Us
Helping Quickly Solve Problems

Input your search keywords and press Enter.