Encouraging research

[grower]

news-medical.net/news/20160...

[lind-ane]

4 patients in the study?

[grower in reply to lind-ane]

Yes of course you're right, it's certainly not ground breaking yet but I thought it was interesting.

[DEAT in reply to grower]

Thanks for sharing Grower.

[Hikoi in reply to lind-ane]

It was a small study to prove safety I believe. Another trial begins this month - February.

[Hidden]

excerpt

“Our goal is to obtain provisional consent and launch NTCELL as the first disease modifying treatment for Parkinson’s disease in 2017,” says Dr Taylor.

Parkinson’s disease progression is measured by a neurological rating scale, Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). The UPDRS score increases by approximately 4 to 5 points each year as Parkinson’s disease progresses.

NTCELL’s ability to decrease UPDRS by an average of 16 points after 58 weeks is clinically significant, representing a 3 to 4 year reversal of neurological deterioration. In the first patient the improvement is maintained at 74 weeks after NTCELL implant.

[BillDavid]

What exactly is NTCELL? Apparently it has to be implanted? Where?

BillDavid

[Hikoi in reply to BillDavid]

Hope these links works, they give background to the trials BillDavid

Innovative approach from a very small nation I'd say!

newshub.co.nz/nznews/nz-pig...

stuff.co.nz/southland-times...

[grower in reply to BillDavid]

NZ company working on it lctglobal.com/products/ntcell

[BillDavid]

Thanks....givea a direction to look further

BillDavid

.

[BillDavid in reply to BillDavid]

Thanks

BillDavid

[zawy]

There was Chinese group that did this transplantation (of cells from pigs' choroid plexus region of their brain) in monkeys for PD with good results and it seems has been tested in other neurological diseases.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/240...

" NTCELL has the potential to treat neurodegenerative diseases because choroid plexus cells help

produce CSF as well as a range of neurotrophins (nerve growth factors) that have been shown to

protect against neuron (nerve) cell death in animal models of disease. NTCELL has been shown in

preclinical studies to regenerate damaged tissue and restore function in animal models of Parkinson’s

disease, stroke, Huntington’s disease, hearing loss and other non-neurological conditions, such as

wound healing. In addition to Parkinson’s disease, NTCELL has the potential to be used in a number

of other CNS indications, including Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s and motor neurone diseases including

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).