NZ USING PIG BRAIN CELLS HAVE APPROVAL ... - Cure Parkinson's
NZ USING PIG BRAIN CELLS HAVE APPROVAL FOR HUMAN TRIALS, THEY ANTICIPATE RELEASE TO PUBLIC 2016 ARE WE BEIN TAKEN FOR A RIDE??
Oink oink smiles. If it works I will have some. Seriously though I am going to read up on this and will revert with my thoughts.
It only lasts for a Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek !!!
Out of all the animals in the world, why do they have to use a pigs neurons on Humans. That doesn't make any sense to me. Why not our cousins the apes or some other animal. Oh well, will see what happens here.
WHY PIGS?
From Parkinsons UK siite
9 October 2012
A potential new treatment using brain cells from pigs has been approved for testing in people with Parkinson's.
New Zealand based company Living Cell Technology have pioneered this interesting new approach and hope to start trials in 2013.
A surprising new treatment
The new treatment uses pig cells taken from part of the brain called the choroid plexus cells.
Choroid plexus cells are naturally occurring "support" cells for the brain and when transplanted can help protect the brain and repair damaged nerve tissue.
These cells taken from the young pigs are almost identical to cells found in the human brain.
The cells are packaged inside a specially designed capsule which acts like a teabag - allowing beneficial proteins and chemicals to leak out, but preventing the immune system from rejecting the cells as foreign.
The company has produced a similar treatment for diabetes, which is currently being tested in Phase 2 trials in New Zealand and Argentina.
The new trial
The new clinical trial will compare the safety and clinical effect of the new treatment against deep brain stimulation in people with Parkinson's.
Both techniques use a tiny tube to reach the damaged part of the brain.
In deep brain stimulation, electrodes are put through the catheter and an electric pulse used to change brain activity.
In pig cell therapy, the capsules containing living cells are injected to hopefully help repair the brain.
Towards the next generation of treatments for Parkinson's
Our Director of Research and Innovation, Dr Kieran Breen, comments:
"It's really encouraging to see innovative therapies like this one making the leap into clinical trials to be tested in people with Parkinson's.
"Clearly it’s still very early days and many years of extensive testing are needed to assess whether this new treatment is safe and effective.
"But the prospect of using new and healthy cells to help repair the parts of the brain that are damaged by Parkinson's is getting ever closer to becoming a reality.
Who cares if they use a pig,if it can give us our life back.God bless those people that do those clinical trials. To me they are my heros willing to test a new procedure so we can all benefit.
and while on the NZ topic (the land of 4 million people and 20 million sheep, not many pigs though) did others see this recent news?
NEW ZEALAND SCIENTIISTS TURN SKIN CELLS INTO BRAIN CELLS
Scientists in Auckland have achieved a world first - by taking human skin and turning it into brain cells.
Its a breakthrough in developing a treatment for patients with Alzheimer’s or Huntington's, and a crucial step towards doctors being able to replace cells damaged in the brain.
Petri dishes in a laboratory hold the hopes of countless people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. They contain human skin cells in the process of being transformed into immature or pre-cursor brain cells.
They will be used to study the way those diseases develop and affect the brain.
In the past, scientists had to use brain tissue from people after they'd died, but Dr Bronwen Connor from Auckland University’s Centre for Brain research says they can now look at living cells.
“By being able to actually look at how a disease progresses in a human cell we can identify new targets for drugs, we can understand better how the disease progresses.”
They can also look at what causes the diseases and how to prevent them from occurring.
Before that though, scientists will use the brain cells to test new drugs and see how well they work.
One day they hope the cells can replace those damaged through accident or disease.
“We can potentially make them from the patients' own skin cells, so that removes any issues of immune rejection by the body and any ethical or moral issues in regards to donors,” Dr Connor says.
There's similar work going on around the world, but they're using cells from animals, not humans.
It's an exciting time for scientists. In England they have re-grown synthetic body parts to use in transplants.
In Colombia, US researchers are testing a drug they hope will prevent Alzheimer’s.
Dr Connor hopes the breakthrough in Auckland will speed up the work of scientists around the world in unravelling complex brain diseases.
My mother in law had heart surgery and they replaced a a heart valve with a pig valve n worked great so i can see this.
