IIT-B has come up with hydrogels mimicking natural brain tissue to cure Parkinson's disease via stem cell therapy

Sreemoyee Chatterjee| TNN | Nov 23, 2016

BENGALURU: After working for five years, a team of three from department of Biosciences and Bioengineering (BSBE) at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay and IITB-Monash Research Academy has designed smart amyloid based hydrogels that are able to guide stem cell to differentiate to neuron and successfully transplanted these stem cells in the brain of Parkinson's disease (PD) animal models with unique amyloid hydrogels.

While Parkinson's disease that is caused due to progressive degeneration of dopaminergic neuron in a specific region of brain has no permanent cure and the present treatment only provides a symptomatic relief, does not reverse the disease progression and patients often stop responding to drug treatment after multiple shots are applied, stem cell based therapy have a huge potential in curing the disease, found out the researchers.

"Stem cells could be suitably implanted and differentiated into the specific class of functional neurons to replenish the degenerated ones inside the brain. The newly developed neurons will not only stop disease progression but also cure the patient. However, in practice the implanted stem cells must survive in the diseased brain condition and develop or differentiate to neurons at the transplanted site. This can completely cure Parkinson's disease," said Professor Samir K Maji, one of the lead researchers from BSBE department.

Speaking about stem cell therapy as a long term, cost effective cure to Parkinson's disease, Subhadeep Das from IITB-Monash Research Academy, another researcher, said: "At the present day, there is no cure for Parkinson's disease. Stem cell based treatment could potentially provide a long-term solution in curing the disease. Current patient care and medicines for treatment are very expensive. At the current stage, we are not in a position to compare cost; however, we believe that stem cell based treatment could be much more cost effective compared to expenses incurred in current treatments and care of Parkinson's patient as it provides a long term solution. Moreover, as stem cell therapy can possibly cure the disease to the cause and recovery of patients is expected to be much faster and effective than just symptomatic relief."

While Parkinson's disease is one of the most common neurological disorders among geriatric population characterized by neuro-degeneration in specific brain area leading to gradual decline in normal body movements, muscle controls, posture and cognitive processes to which stem cell therapy can provide complete cure, few major challenges need to be resolved for an effective therapy stem cells can provide, say the researchers. The newly designed amyloid based hydrogels are the solution they have come up with.

Reeba S Jacob from IIT-B, said: "Factors hindering stem cell therapy for Parkinson's disease include extremely low cell survival upon transplantation and aberrant migration of cells into other parts of the brain. Our solutions to the above problems were development of a suitable biomaterial that can provide a unique micro environment to the transplanted cells such that they are able to survive and develop into neurons. For the last few years, we are working on designing biomaterials which can be used as a suitable vehicle as well as substrate for stem cell transplantation and differentiation into neurons for replacing the damaged neurons in patients' brains."

"Using an interdisciplinary approach, we have designed smart biomaterials (hydrogels) using small peptides (fragments of proteins) self-assembled into nano-fibers. These hydrogels mimic the natural brain tissue and can be used to transplant human stem cells into brain to facilitate neuron regeneration in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease," she added.

"Being biodegradable, these hydrogels get naturally metabolized in the brain once their purpose is served. We already have the preliminary proof that these hydrogels do not elicit a high immune response and are within tolerance level both in neuronal cell lines and in animal models. We have also successfully transplanted stem cells into PD animal model with this hydrogel and assessed the fate of those transplanted cells. The gel substantially improves the survival of the implanted stem cells in the diseased brain environment and promotes their development towards neurons," said Professor Maji.

He added: "However, we are yet to know whether these nascent neurons would be integrated to the existing neural circuit of the brain. Currently we are performing long-term experiments, where the implanted stem cells would be present for a much longer time period (4-6 months) to assess the fate of those cells." Hydrogels can be delivered into brain with minimally invasive surgery.

A key advantage to these hydrogels is that they can be delivered into the brain with minimally invasive surgery. Engineering a complex tissue like that of a brain comes with a lot of challenges and we have miles to go before we can completely mimic the tissue, structurally and functionally. However, development of biocompatible scaffolds that support cells and help in successful cell transplantation gives a strong foundation to build upon, that can eventually make stem cell therapy for neurodegenerative diseases a reality.

Professor Samir K Maji, Biosciences and Bioengineering department at IIT-Bombay, lead researcher.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/IIT-B-has-come-up-with-hydrogels-mimicking-natural-brain-tissue-to-cure-Parkinsons-disease-via-stem-cell-therapy/articleshow/55584718.cms