Miraculous Story of a person who underwent stem cell transplant in 1999

[Farooqji]

I have taken this portion of the the report from the article elaborating the results of double blind trial in 1999.

"Patient 133 (video segments 17–19) developed parkinsonism at age 42 in 1986. His major problems were wearing-off episodes as well as levodopa-induced dyskinesias, particularly of the left arm. He had a sham operation during the double-blind phase of the study and an open-label fetal tissue implant in January 1999 at age 55. During the first year after the transplant, his “off” periods were milder (see Table 1).

After the transplant, dyskinesias increased, so levodopa was reduced. Controlled-release carbidopa/levodopa 25/100 mg was reduced to one per day and was discontinued by February 2000, 13 months after transplant. He continued to take trihexyphenidyl, selegiline, and amantadine. He was employed as an electrician. On September 11, 2001, he was working on the 34th floor of the first World Trade Center Tower attacked by a hijacked airplane. He walked down the 33 flights of stairs in the same 15 min as all others evacuating the building, ran five blocks to escape the dust cloud, and was not injured.

By October 2001, he indicated that left arm dyskinesias began at 9 to 10 a.m. and were bothersome about 1 h out of every four. Late in the afternoon, his right arm rather than his left might show intermittent dyskinesias.

Later in 2001, he experienced increasing “off” time, and restarted Sinemet which caused an increase in “on” dyskinesias. His levodopa-induced dyskinesias continued to fluctuate and were severe at times. Reduction of Sinemet and addition of ropinirole improved his fluctuations but did not eliminate them. In July 2002, 42 months after transplant, his UPDRS motor “off” score was 10 and “on” score was 5 with levodopa-induced dyskinesias present. Repeat FDOPA PET scan showed persistent putaminal fluorodopa uptake as we have found for at least four years in all subjects even without immunosuppression32. He continued to work full time as an electrician."

nature.com/articles/s41531-...

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Interesting

These involuntary movements establish the principle that fetal dopaminergic tissue transplants can mimic the effects of levodopa, not only in reducing bradykinesia, but also in provoking dyskinesias.

[Bolt_Upright]

Interesting article. Thanks! I encourage people to read the entire article as it details the stories of about 5 or 6 patients.

[HugoRipanykhazov]

So, it seems, the stem cell transplant was totally ineffective? And you are suggesting that this was known through study as long ago as 2001?

[Farooqji in reply to HugoRipanykhazov]

You have totally misunderstood it

[HugoRipanykhazov]

OK, but how?

[Farooqji in reply to HugoRipanykhazov]

Fetal cell implants helped patients with Parkinson's disease, especially those over 60. In younger patients it caused dyskensias alongside symptomatic benefits. In short it had mixed results. Lessons learnt from the earlier trials are being incorporated in the current trials

[HugoRipanykhazov]

sorry, I only read the extract, not the full results. They seemed to show no improvement WITH THAT PATIENT