Stem cells to treat Parkinson's? 2 small studies hint at success

[JayPwP]

Looks promising

npr.org/sections/shots-heal...

[Bolt_Upright]

"For a typical Parkinson's patient, "you would expect every year to get two to three points worse," says Dr. Lorenz Studer, who directs the Center for Stem Cell Biology at the Sloan Kettering Institute in New York and is a scientific adviser to BlueRock.

Participants in Studer's study had a very different experience: "The high-dose group, they got about 20 points better.""

[JCRO in reply to Bolt_Upright]

So high dose like winding the clock back 7-10 years? 🤣

I do hope this actually works.

[WinnieThePoo in reply to Bolt_Upright]

That was a very small group. Take a look at some other research with small groups. And bear in mind , you can't get plus numbers. Most people won't get to 20 until at least 5 years post-diagnosis. So to improve by 20 would be impossible for a newly diagnosed.

[RBDNoPDYet]

have other stem cell trials failed? I don’t know much about this topic.

[WinnieThePoo in reply to RBDNoPDYet]

Yes. There were trials at the end of the last century with very mixed results. Some serious adverse events and complications. There are good reasons to think that all of the trials this time around learned enough from those earlier ones to succeed. But, it's important to remember, that this only fixes dopamine deficiency. At its best, it is like permanent perfect Sinemet. It doesnt affect constipation, sense of smell, fatigue and other non-motor symptoms.

But permanent, perfect Sinemet is still pretty good.

[RBDNoPDYet in reply to WinnieThePoo]

Why doesn’t it help non motor?

[WinnieThePoo in reply to RBDNoPDYet]

Because it just replaces dopamine

[Obiora in reply to WinnieThePoo]

Some studies with monkeys hace shown benefits beyond motor sumptoms, we really dont fully understand the phisiopathology of Parkinsons, so maybe we can have some added benefits

[Parkie123 in reply to WinnieThePoo]

I think that's where non-medical therapies may be able to provide a role (B1, light therapy etc.).

It also still remains to be seen whether the newly created dopaminergic neurons survive over the long term given that the underlying disease pathology isn't being addressed. It could be that the neuron death process takes 10 to 20 years so the stem cell process may just need to be repeated in the future to maintain optimal dopamine levels.

[WinnieThePoo in reply to Parkie123]

Yes - other therapies may plug the gap that dopamine replacement cannot help

And yes - the underlying pathology is not helped, and the disease continues to damage dopamine neurons , including those stem cell transplants. But the benefits are likely to last 20 to 30 years. Who knows, the underlying pathology may get cured in that time-frame

[WinnieThePoo]

This is a couple of years old, but still a really great summary of the subject by a leading expert who actually knows what he's talking about

see about 26 minutes in - for how long grafts last

7 minutes 50 seconds to 8 minutes 20 seconds for "only as good as dopamine meds"

youtube.com/watch?v=OzGBceu...(Not working as expected?)

But watch the whole thing - it's brilliant if you are interested in this subject

[JayPwP in reply to WinnieThePoo]

I had read earlier that stem cells can lead to tumors. Is that true?

[WinnieThePoo in reply to JayPwP]

Yes. Some of the earlier trial transplants led to tumours. The problem was essentially insufficient screening of the new cells prior to transplant.