Parkinson's disease (PD) is a highly prevalent neurodegenerative disorder that is characterised by the precise, progressive loss of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the brain, resulting in motor neuron damage, tremors, and loss of balance. Non-motor disease symptoms of Parkinson's disease include rapid eye movement, sleep disorders, depression, and bowel problems. Evidently, no restorative therapies are presently available to alter or restore the progression of the intrinsic disease processes.
Available Treatments for PD
The existing gold standard for Parkinson's disease treatment is the intake of levodopa, which has consistently demonstrated satisfactory outcomes in the temporal restoration of PD symptoms. Long-term exposure to levodopa, on the other hand, leads to a progressive reduction in drug effectiveness and cognitive and psychiatric problems.
Conversely, surgical methods like deep brain stimulation (DBS) have been shown to mitigate PD motor symptoms and facilitate symptomatic relief that medicines cannot handle. Nevertheless, its use is not only restricted to early-to-mid-stage Parkinson's disease, but it also ends up losing efficacy after several years.
Alternative Approach- Stem Cell Therapy
In the past few decades, cell-based therapy employing human stem cells has made huge progress in conquering the aforementioned limitations in Parkinson's disease treatment. Stem cell therapy is considered to replace inflamed, dysfunctional tissues in the anticipation of restoring lost motor neuron function induced by degeneration of neurons. Mesenchymal Stem Cells in particular are known to have great potential as a successful treatment for neurodegenerative diseases.
Since a large number of motor deficits are heavily related to a single cell-the dopamine neuron-disease Parkinson's is a suitable choice for stem cell therapy. Stem cells have an unparalleled regenerative capacity and can also naturally produce a wide range of support factors. This represents a significant advancement in acknowledging how stem cells can influence future Parkinson's treatments. Researchers hope to use stem cells to treat Parkinson's disease in two distinct ways: as manufacturing units to mass-produce dopamine neurons or as an origin of key factors to protect nerve cells.
Human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have both been demonstrated in various studies to be capable of developing dopamine-producing neurons. Neurons derived from human stem cells can grow into human dopamine-producing neurons after transplantation.
