{"id":62865,"date":"2014-11-07T08:03:55","date_gmt":"2014-11-07T08:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=62865"},"modified":"2014-11-07T08:03:55","modified_gmt":"2014-11-07T08:03:55","slug":"parkinsons-stem-cell-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=62865","title":{"rendered":"Parkinson’s stem cell ‘breakthrough’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stem cells can be used to heal the damage in the brain caused by Parkinson’s disease, according to scientists in Sweden.<\/p>\n

They said their study on rats heralded a “huge breakthrough” towards developing effective treatments.<\/p>\n

There is no cure for the disease, but medication and brain stimulation can alleviate symptoms.<\/p>\n

Parkinson’s UK said there were many questions still to be answered before human trials could proceed.<\/p>\n

The disease is caused by the loss of nerve cells in the brain that produce the chemical dopamine ,which helps to control mood and movement.<\/p>\n

To simulate Parkinson’s, Lund University researchers killed dopamine-producing neurons on one side of the rats’ brains.<\/p>\n

They then converted human embryonic stem cells into neurons that produced dopamine.<\/p>\n

\"Parkinson's<\/div>\n
Parkinson’s is one of the commonest neurodegenerative diseases<\/strong><\/div>\n

These were injected into the rats’ brains, and the researchers found evidence that the damage was reversed.<\/p>\n

There have been no human clinical trials of stem-cell-derived neurons, but the researchers said they could be ready for testing by 2017.<\/p>\n

Malin Parmar, associate professor of developmental and regenerative neurobiology, said: “It’s a huge breakthrough in the field [and] a stepping stone towards clinical trials.”<\/p>\n

A similar method has been tried in a limited number of patients.<\/p>\n

It involved taking brain tissue from multiple aborted foetuses to heal the brain.<\/p>\n

Clinical trials were abandoned after mixed results, but about a third of the patients had foetal brain cells that functioned for 25 years.<\/p>\n

Using embryonic stem cells may be preferable, as it is easier to get hold of the large numbers of cells needed for transplant by growing them in the laboratory.<\/p>\n

It also opens up the possibility of using less ethically charged sources of stem cells, such as those made from adult tissue.<\/p>\n

The charity Parkinson’s UK said the research “could be a stride towards clinical trials in people with Parkinson’s”.<\/p>\n

Its director of research and development, Arthur Roach, said: “This important research is a key step along the way in helping us to understand how stem cells might shape future Parkinson’s treatments.<\/p>\n

“There are important potential advantages of these cells over the foetal-derived cells used in past cell transplantation work.<\/p>\n

“This study could be a stride towards clinical trials in people with Parkinson’s but there are still many questions that need to be answered before this development can be tested in people with the condition.”<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stem cells can be used to heal the damage in the brain caused by Parkinson’s disease, according to scientists in Sweden. They said their study on rats heralded a “huge breakthrough” towards developing effective treatments. There is no cure for the disease, but medication and brain stimulation can alleviate symptoms. Parkinson’s UK said there were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":62869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-62865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-chinese"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}