Embryonic Stem Cells and Parkinson’s Disease?
Friday, April 8th, 2011 at
3:36 pm
A question from Aimz: Embryonic stem cells and Parkinson’s disease?
Why are embryonic stem cells an effective treatment for Parkinson’s disease? What makes them better than say deep brain stimulation or dopamine enhancing drugs such as Levodopa?
Thanks
No 1 answer:
Answer by Line and Circle
I’m not an expert but I was under the impression that just about every stem cell treatment uses adult stem cells, not embryonic cells.
Embryonic stem cells have been used mainly in research so far I believe.
If you know better then please let us know below.
Tagged with: cells • disease • Embryonic • Parkinsons • stem
Filed under: Parkinsons
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The goal of finding the root cause(s) of Parkinson’s disease remains to be discovered. We know the results of the causes and that is the loss of the dopamine producing neurons but not why that happens.
DBS, deep brain stimulation is a treatment to alleviate symptoms and therefore reduce the reliance on medication. It is not a cure.
Levadopa meds are dopamine antagonists which relieve some symptoms but not all. The earlier problems with L-Dopa was that the positive results did not last for that many years and then the patient quickly moved to the latter stags of PD. Don’t be fooled as many physicians are that L-dopa is the “gold standard.” It should not be the first choice in many courses of treatment but it is the pat answer. It should really be a last resort med. It aids rigidity (a serious problem) and slowness of movement but often not the tremors, gait and a few other symptoms. And as the “off” times increase…
In recent years, levadopa is accompanied by med such as carbidopa which provides a longer time before the drug ceased to be effective.
There are other treatments in the pipeline and other meds on the market. There are dopamine agonists such as Azilect an MAOI-B and Segeline also an MAOI-B. There is Mirapex and several others. The problem with these meds can be the side effects. My husband has taken all three over time. The only one he takes now is Azilect which does not produce the obsessive behavior and halucinations he experienced on Mirapex and Segeline.
There is an off label – eventually to be on-label- med, Isradipine (generic name) DynaCirc CR which is a calcium channel blocker which crosses the blood brain barrier and may eventually be used with levadopas to extend their utility for a few decades. DynaCirc CR seems to have helped slow the progression of my husband’s PD.
There is also research in GDNF – glial derived neurotropic factor – which shows promise but the company with the inner track on the meds has not yet raised the multi-millions necesary to bring it to the point where it can be marketed. It is touted as a very effective treatment to slow or stop progression, while on main street, folks are hoping that it will be a cure.
There are several other developing treatments to ease symptoms through less invasive but similar surgery to DBS. Optogenics, spinal cord stimulation, magnetic stimulation.
It is hoped that a cure will be found withing the next ten years, a not unrealistic hope. And that is where ESCs come in. Not just embryonic stem cells but possible skin cells and a few other types of stem cells.
But those treatments are not “more effective” because they don’t seem to exist yet although you will read about a European clinic which performs some kind of therapy involving stem cells. I believe there is also a hospital or clinic in China with similar claims.
There may also be some kind of gene therapy as there is much research being done know to determine if PD is more than just 10% genetic.
But the goal is a cure and not just treatments which work for some but not for all.
One way to slow progression is to learn more about the precursor symptoms of the disease and begin some course of treatment then. The problem is that now the early symptoms are recognized in retrospect. And of course the blood test for PD is not ready just yet. Diagnosis is primarily a series of questions and neurological observations using the UPDRS-revised as a basis.
Health care providers need specific education about early symptoms which when listed sound like almost anything and not that significant but once the identifiable symptoms begin, the patient has lost between 60 to 80% of the dopamine cells and then it is just a question of which symptoms they manifest and how much the doctor and the patient know about treatment options.
For more information you can see articles here:
http://parkinsonsfocustoday.blogspot.com/
Topics are in the right column, just scroll down