Stem Cells and the War on Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s Disease is a devastating disease that slowly eats away at the central nervous system. What may begin as a subtle hand tremor can grow over the years into an uncontrollable and life-altering problem.
It’s a condition that has been known since ancient times as “shaking palsy,” but it wasn’t officially detailed until London doctor James Parkinson wrote “An Essay on the Shaking Palsy” in 1817. Parkinson’s essay established the existence of the disease, but it was still not thoroughly understood or ready to be treated. It took until the 1960s for researchers to discover chemical differences in the brains of Parkinson’s patients, particularly low levels of dopamine caused by the degeneration of nerve cells.
Since that discovery, research for Parkinson’s has significantly increased, especially since the inception of the Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2000. Americans have raised, donated, and spent millions and millions of dollars trying to uncover a cure for Parkinson’s disease, and now doctors from the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia could potentially have a solution using stem cells.
The Correlation Between Stem Cells and Parkinson’s Disease
Stem cells are unique cells found in the body that can be coaxed into nearly any type of tissue in the body. Since stem cells can also regenerate themselves endlessly, they are critically valuable in helping to heal injured and disease parts of the body.
Many advocates of Parkinson’s research, including the Michael J. Fox Foundation, support the safe and cautious use of stem cells to battle Parkinson’s Disease. It is believed that stem cells can be injected into the brain to help produce more dopamine, the all important neurotransmitter that patients of Parkinson’s Disease lack. Without dopamine, Parkinson’s patients struggle to show expression, move their arms when they walk, speak clearly, and move limbs fluidly. If stem cells could indeed boost the production of dopamine in the brain, it’s possible that Parkinson’s symptoms would be relieved.
The World’s First Stem Cell Procedure for Parkinson’s in Australia
Long before a 64-year-old Victorian man arrived at the hospital to become the first person treated with stem cells for Parkinson’s Disease, his neurologist Andrew Evans and neurosurgeon Girish Nair spent weeks practicing the procedure on a 3-D model of the patient’s brain. The doctors wanted to ensure complete perfection of the five hour operation, which required multiple injections into the brain.
Evans and Nair entered the patient’s brain through two 1.5cm holes in the skull and injected a total of 14 sites on the brain. Each injection occurred precisely four minutes apart with neural stem cells. The surgery itself went safely, and the patient is healthy in recovery, but any potential results aren’t expected for another year as doctors carefully evaluate the patient’s condition.
Now that one treatment has been completed without any problems, 11 other patients are scheduled to receive the same surgery. “At the end of the study we will have transplanted tens of millions of neural stem cells directly into the brain of the 12 Australian participants. Hopefully this will go a long way into understanding how we can replenish brain function for people with Parkinson’s Disease,” Nair explained to the press.
Resources:
http://futurism.com/the-war-on-parkinsons-stem-cells-successfully-injected-into-patients-brain/
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