Even though I mentioned that
the stem cell therapy using olfactory mucosa is the cure with most potential,
it still had some issues such as formations of tumors after stem cell
implantations. However at the beginning of April this year, the researchers from
journal Frontiers in Cellular
Neuroscience published that stem cell implants along with an anti-cancer
drug has been proven to be effective against Parkinson’s disease symptoms in
mice reported by NDTV.com. Scientists used two groups of mice, one treated with
the stem cell therapy without anti-cancer medication also used as a control
group and another group treated with stem cell therapy with anti-cancer drug to
detect this new finding. This finding is extremely important because the
researchers used FDA approved anti cancer drug along with the stem cell therapy
and after the cell implantation, there were no tumors formed in mice. The cells
were induced to differentiate into dopamine (neurotransmitters that act as
signals between our brain and body and crucial for physical movements)-producing
cells and maintained healthy and functional state even after 15 months later. Furthermore,
the researchers discovered that cells from the stem cell therapy with
anti-cancer drugs released more dopamines, compare to regular stem cells from
control group mice. Also another reason why this result is significant because
developments of stem cell therapy leads to not only a cure for Parkinson’s
disease but also for other progressive brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s
disease and Lou Gehrig’s disease also known as ALS. Currently for Parkinson’s
disease, researches with mice have been conducted to figure out a way for the
stem cell therapy. With these discoveries, scholars and researchers in biology
field can develop even further with the cure and human trials could be
possible. Even though there are many barriers to overcome with stem cell
therapy, if scholars and researchers continue to make these kinds of
progressive steps, this potential cure could be available to patients even
sooner.
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It's amazing how science has come so far. The fact that this research might be able to be applied and help towards Alzheimer's disease is great. Is this research only being done on mice?
ReplyDeleteIt is mind blowing how much potential stem cell therapy has in the medical treatment field. Of course they need to be monitored by other medications such as the anti-cancer drug that you stated but besides that they can virtually do anything. I agree that it still has a long way to go but I think as people realize its potential then experimenting with stem cells will begin to boom and we'll see patient use like you said soon.
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