Does anyone know of any positive results for treating PD with the use of Stem Cell therapy?
I am considering this type of therapy for my PWP wife who was diagnosed in 2019. The procedure I am looking at is one where they extract a small amount of fat from your own body and then obtain Mesenchymal Stem Cells from this fat. As these are one's own stem cells, there is no risk of rejection.
There seems to be a lot of research and trials regarding stem cell therapy and PD but I have not come across anything that seems to establish any of its effectiveness.
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Rafiki2
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The fat thing is fraud. There are a number of such clinics claiming it. However legitimate stem cell treatment is not yet available in the market. There are a number of trials going right now and if successful, can be available commercially within next 5 years
Stem Cell treatment using patients own Mesenchymal Stem Cells is not a fraud per se. Again this is my opinion and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Based on many studies that have been done, it is plausible and has shown benefits in many neurological disorders. Just because there may be limited studies in the USA, does not mean it is a fraud. If you such world wide, there are institutions that have recorded successful application with patients own Mesenchymal Stem Cells. Again, it is up to the individual to ascertain what is believable and how deep they are willing to investigate the subject matter of Stem Cell treatment.
A typical treatment at one of these clinics involves removing fat cells from the abdomen (some clinics remove bone marrow or blood for this procedure), treating the cells in various ways in order to isolate mesenchymal stem cells or stromal cells from the removed tissue, and finally injecting these cells back into the body. The cells are re-introduced into the body in different locations (into the bloodstream, cerebral spinal fluid, nose, eye, etc.) depending on which disease is being targeted. Such treatments are performed for a fee, sometimes a large one, and are not covered by insurance.
• Be cautious of any clinic promoting a treatment that has not been proven by the FDA to be safe and effective.
• There is some promise in the area of using stem cells as a possible treatment for PD, but much more research needs to be done before such a therapy will be approved for clinical use.
I have to agree with Farooqi: The only place I know of to get valid stem cell treatments is in the trials.
Now for some good news: The trials may still be accepting patients. Last I heard, a few weeks ago, the Houston trial was still taking applications. And Houston's trial seems promising (to me, high school educated Bolt).
Thank you all for your feed backs and thank you Bolt_Upright for posting the video on Marie, very encouraging.
I reside in South Africa and have done (and still doing) extensive research like many of you are doing. I recently came across a US company called Cell Surgical Network stemcellrevolution.com which has become a global network of physicians and doctors performing investigational studies into personal cell therapy, primarily using adipose derived stem cells from one's own fat. This they claim is far better than cells derived from bone marrow, especially in older people.
CSN was established in 2010 and today has a large number of members in the USA and in over 12 countries. They have a list of conditions that they are currently studying which includes PD. There are a number of videos on YouTube.
I recently contacted their South African member and when asked whether they treat PD was told that they do not specifically treat any disease. They only administer stem cell therapy and let the stem cells do their job. Which kind of makes sense.
The amount of fat they extract by using a mini liposuction is only about 50cc (milliliters)and they then extract between 30 to 50 million stem cells from this. The whole process of extracting the stem cells and administering them via IV takes about 3 to 4 hours.
If you want to know more, I suggest you look at their website and contact your nearest CSN physician/doctor for further information.
(I do want to give the site credit for clearly stating the details and linking to studies, while I still find it misleading)
The first significant heading is "Parkinson's disease treatment with mesenchymal stem cells: Current Research.
Stem cell therapy may benefit Parkinson's Disease by replacing and repairing damaged dopamine-producing nerve cells within the brain. One study published in the journal "Stem Cells Translational Medicine" in 2016 reported the results of phase I clinical trial in which MSCs derived from bone marrow were transplanted into the brains of 12 patients with Parkinson's disease.
The study found that the transplantation was safe and that the patients improved their motor function and reduced the severity of their Parkinson's disease symptoms."
So... they lead with this very promising study...
But... DVCSTEM does not use bone marrow cells and they don't transplant their umbilical cord stem cells (DVCSTEM uses donated umbilical cord cells) into PwP brains. They put them in your bloodstream: "Our IRB-approved protocol involves the intravenous (IV) infusion of 300 million culturally expanded human umbilical cord tissue-derived adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)." dvcstem.com/protocol
I had looked at DVC Stem about 7 months ago and as I reside in South Africa the whole exercise would have been too expensive. More importantly, when I asked them for some concrete evidence of PD patients, which they claimed they had treated successfully, they were not able to produce this. They said that this was mostly for confidentiality reasons. This left me with no alternative but to abandon the thought of using DVC.
It does however look like they have had some successes with other diseases, especially MS, but less so with PD so far based on their reviews.
"I have not come across anything that seems to establish any of its effectiveness."
I would say that is because MSCs-for-PD is currently at the clinical-trial stage, not yet at the clinical-use stage. Among other things, the two Texas trials (Hope Biosciences and Uni of Texas) are seeking to determine the most effective size of dose and number of doses. Results from both of these Phase 2 trials (N=60 and N=45) are due to be published late this year or early next year.
I definitely wouldn’t say MSC is a fraud. I just finished taking part in the Hope Biosciences trial. We’re waiting for the results due out sometime over the summer.
I have written several posts about the Hope Biosciences trial and don't call it a fraud. I was calling the clinics as fraud who sell unproven treatments
I got to date 4 stemcell infusions from Hope through the “right to try act”, therefore I got the treatment for sure. I have seen benefits slowly showing: first less rigid, better gait, but primarily I do not have “off” periods at all (taking Sinemet 62.5 x 3 day and mucuma) so I can exercise better. The price charged is in no way comparable to the private clinics (c $6k per infusion). I will wait and see how my progression goes this year (hope it will slow down/stop) and then I will decide if I go for more (I live in Europe). Will keep you posted!.
This sounds very encouraging, thank you for letting me know. May I ask you if the stem cells were obtained from your own body (fat/bone marrow/blood?) and did you receive them by IV? Did you receive all 4 infusion in the same day?
Hi Rafiki, it was obtained from my own fact cells, the infusions are via IV. I had twice 2 infusions within 2 weeks (as I had to travel, stayed 3 weeks to have 2 infusions each time). Note that the results are dependent on your own body’s response and for me they (still) are small gradual improvements, my greatest hope is to see the progression stalling. You can reach out to them , they will explain the risks as well (nothing is risk free!).
Dear MotheroffiveMy name is Lina. I am Andreas" wife, from Cyprus, EU. My husband has PD, tremor and stiffness in hight leg and arm. We are seriously looking into the Right to Try Program of Hope Bioscience. We have already talked to Sherry. I was hoping you could share with us which steps you took to find a US licensed doctor. In Cyprus, doctors don't know about this program. We would appreciate any information regarding the application process .
We hope you are doing better.
We are very much looking forward to your reply. I thank you in advance for your help.
I have attended the Cure Parkinson’s research day in London a few weeks ago where Prof Roger Barker was the key speaker. He is a world leader in stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s (please see attached video). His view is that the technology is still being trialled and that it is still to early to use it outside of trials. youtu.be/ixXDHgXcUz0
Thanks for posting this video. It clearly shows that there is still work to be done in stem cell therapy and it may be worth waiting a little longer. I shall be following this closely.
In the meantime, there are other treatments that are in their final phase 3 before applying for FDA approval and hopefully will soon become available. The ones I am closely following are 1) Dr. Tass's gloves, 2) Tavapadon pills by Cerevel Pharmaceuticals and 3) Ambroxol.
These are just some of the possible treatments I have on the short list and there will certainly be more in the coming weeks and months ahead. Let's all keep fingers crossed.
I think that is the right approach. If you are interested in Ambroxol then the other speaker after Roger Barker was Professor Shapira on Ambroxol (see video below for an update).
So what George did was: Take the protocol the trial was using and find a cancer hospital in Russia that would duplicate the trial for George! George was in his trial at the same time personal trial at the same time the HALT MS trial was going on. Both trials were successes.
Thank you Carpediem. Lund and Cambridge are working together on this (this is the same project as the one mentioned by R Barker). Very interesting indeed, but we will have to wait quite a few years (5-10?) before we can hope to benefit from this.
Isn't the real problem that no one really knows if replacing the dopamine-producing cells with new ones of whatever type (and with whatever effect) treats PD; or if it just gets rid of a symptom of the disease?
Not really. Roger Barker was quite specific. Stem cell transplants do not treat PF and are only of benefit for people who respond well to dopamine supplementation
It isn't a question of not having a deficiency, it's not responding to the rectification of that deficiency. Not necessarily for all symptoms. So some PWP still experience off times or no relief of motor symptoms on high levadopa supplementation, and no PWP experience relief from constipation by taking sinemet.
Stem cell transplants, at best, will do the dopamine replacement well . They won't cure the underlying illness.
See about 7 minutes and 30 seconds in to the Roger Barker presentation in Michel's post above
I didnt understand that but it appears we are back onto the question of no one really knowing what PD is. And therefore defining it by symptoms in the knowledge that most PWP have more or less the same symptoms.
Placebo is the common reaction when talking about stem cell results. I'm a veterinarian and found results from injecting stem cells into the stifle (knee) of limping dogs. Dogs don't get better because you say they're getting better. Dogs get better because stem cells make them better.
According to Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. , who is the specialist in stem cell research "I found 37 trial listings on stem cells for Parkinson’s on Clincialtrials.gov, which sounds like a lot. However, unfortunately, almost none of these are real, robust interventional trials based on solid preclinical data. Many have unknown status, have been terminated, or are using MSCs or mesenchymal cells or bone marrow cells, which doesn’t make sense to me. Some are for-profit clinic-type operations too, which is troubling.What are some of the more promising trials or efforts that will lead to trials? I can’t list them all but here are the ones I’ve been following most closely:
The MSK Parkinson’s disease trial looks interesting. Viviane Tabar and Lorenz Studer are co-leading this trial on testing injections of stem cells into the brain for Parkinson’s. This is the BlueRock Therapeutics trial. I can’t wait to see the results.
Jun Takahashi has an iPSC-based trial ongoing in Japan for Parkinson’s. I’m excited to see those results in a couple of years too.
Other potentially promising stem cell-related Parkinson’s disease efforts are in the works too. Jeanne Loring founded Aspen Neuroscience, which is working in this area. I expect they’ll start a trial in 2023 or 2024.
Malin Parmar leads a team that has a future trial planned too." :
Be careful. Many places don't grow a significant number of cells to be effective. Check YouTube for video from Hope Bioscience to see some of the differences. They are conducting FDA approved trials and have had good results.
The theory is that stem cells are primordial, meaning they have the ability to turn into whatever type of tissue the body needs. I found the mesenchymal cells were effective when used to treat ACL injury. I'm a veterinarian and was able to extract stem cells using basic equipment I already had. Then inject the stem cells into the stifles (knee) of two 90# dogs. Typically the only treatment for torn ACLs is surgery. Surgery costing $10,000 per leg. The stem cell treatment cost $20 per leg. The client didn't have the money for expensive surgeries and was planning to euthanize both dogs. But the stem cell remedy worked and saved both dogs.
Please research Hope Bioscience in Houston TX. This type of treatment is exactly what they do. They are running FDA approved trials for PD but you can also get treatment through a right to try program. Let me know if you would like contact info. I am getting my 3rd treatment next month. I saw benefit after the first treatment in that the painful dystonia in one side of my neck and shoulder is gone.
Please research Hope Bioscience in Houston TX. This type of treatment is exactly what they do. They are running FDA approved trials for PD but you can also get treatment through a right to try program. Let me know if you would like contact info. I am getting my 3rd treatment next month. I saw benefit after the first treatment in that the painful dystonia in one side of my neck and shoulder is gone.
I live in Europe and I am interested in the right to try act for stem cell treatment for Parkinson s. I would appreciate any information you could give me.
How many infusions? How long it takes? How many times I need to travel to Tx? How much does it cost? Whom to contact? Where to learn more about it?
Dear Sprinhshollow. My husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's. We are seriously considering treatment at Hope,.TX with the Right to Try Program. If you don't mind sharing your experience there with us, we would like to ask you a few questions. My email is Lina.ellinas@gmail.com. thank you in advance
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