Researchers have taken a step toward using the implantation of
stem cell-generated neurons as a treatment for
Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's, which affect as many 10 million people in the
world, is linked to a depletion of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain.
Current treatments include medications and
electrical implants in the brain which cause severe adverse effects over time
and fail to prevent disease progression.
Several studies have indicated that
the transplantation of embryonic stem cells improves motor functions in animal
models but the procedure has shown to be unsafe, because of the risk of tumors
upon transplantation.
Until now. Using an FDA approved drug for
treating stomach cancer, mitomycin C, they were able to pre-treat
undifferentiated mouse embryonic stem cells and grow dopamine-producing neurons
that remained healthy and functional for as long as 15 months after
implantation into mice, restoring motor function without forming tumors in mice
modeled for Parkinson's.
The animals were separated in three groups. The first one, the
control group, did not receive the stem cell implant. The second one, received
the implant of stem cells which were not treated with mitomycin C and the third
one received the mitomycin C treated cells.
After the injection of 50,000 untreated stem cells, the animals
of the second group showed improvement in motor functions but all of them died between 3 and 7 weeks later. These animals also developed
intracerebral tumors. In contrast, animals receiving the treated stem cells
showed improvement of Parkinson's symptoms and survived until the end of the
observation period of 12 weeks post-transplant with no tumors detected. Four of
these mice were monitored for as long as 15 months with no signs of pathology.
They also found that treating the stem cells with mitomycin C
induced a four-fold increase in the release of dopamine after in vitro
differentiation.
"This simple strategy of shortly exposing pluripotent stem
cells to an anti-cancer drug turned the transplant safer, by eliminating the
risk of tumor formation," says study leader
Stevens Rehen, Professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and researcher
at D'OR Institute for Research and Education.
The authors are working toward a clinical trial using
pluripotent stem cells treated with mitomycin C prior to transplant to treat
Parkinson's patients and also other neurodegenerative conditions.
Citation: Details: M. Acquarone, T. Melo, F. G. Meireles
Ferreira, J. Brito-Moreira, G. Oliveira, S. Ferreira, N. Castro, F. Tovar-Moll,
J. C. Houzel, S. K. Rehen. Mitomycin-treated undifferentiated embryonic stem
cells as a safe and effective therapeutic strategy in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience.
http://health.einnews.com/article/259025871/EsMyjNNbEUzS-gxq
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