Stem cell hope for Parkinson’s?
|Published
The findings, reported in the journal Cell Stem Cell, could be tested on humans within two years. The findings, reported in the journal Cell Stem Cell, could be tested on humans within two years.
London - A stem cell breakthrough has given Parkinson’s sufferers hope of an effective treatment.
The disease attacks brain cells, causing tremors, muscle rigidity and mental degeneration.
But scientists believe they could fix the damage to the brain by giving patients transplants of cells grown in a laboratory.
Parkinson’s is a progressive condition that destroys cells in the part of the brain that controls movement. Existing treatments only help to control symptoms that make walking, talking and even writing difficult.
The new approach involves replacing brain cells with stem cells, ‘blank’ cells that can act as a repair kit for the body by mimicking worn-out tissue.
The findings, reported in the journal Cell Stem Cell, could be tested on humans within two years, the Swedish researchers said. The team at Lund University injected rats’ brains with stem cells. After five months, damage had been reversed. Professor Malin Parmar, who led the study, said: ‘It’s a huge breakthrough.’
But Roger Barker, of Cambridge University, warned in the same journal: ‘[We] need to get there in a collaborative way without being tempted to take shortcuts.’
Parkinson’s UK said it was a ‘stride towards clinical trials’.
Daily Mail