Parkinson’s disease is a disease for which there is currently no cure, although there are drugs that can reduce its symptoms. According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), among other things, it is a disease whose worldwide prevalence has doubled in the last 25 years. For this reason, scientists around the world study it with the aim of better understanding its triggering mechanisms and also to achieve new therapeutic approaches. The State University of Milan holds the international conference ‘Stem cell revolutions for neurodegenerative diseases’, during which several teams of scientists discuss the latest advances in the first European clinical trial of transplanting neurons obtained from stem cells for people with Parkinson’s.
The trial began in February 2023, with the first intervention performed at Lund University Hospital, Sweden. “This is an important milestone on the path towards a cell therapy that can be used to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease. The transplant was carried out as planned and the correct location of the cell implant was confirmed by MRI,” declared Gesine Paul-Visse, principal investigator of the Stem-Pd clinical trial and professor at that educational institution. “The patient has been discharged from the hospital and the evaluations will be carried out in accordance with the study protocol,” he added after the intervention.
This is a small clinical trial in which eight patients participate and whose objective is to evaluate the safety of this type of approach, which aims to replace neuronal cells damaged by Parkinson’s with “new” neurons obtained from stem cells. The last procedure was carried out in October of this year, and in about a year the first results on safety will be available, explains Lombardia Roger Barker, professor of clinical neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, who participates. in Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease research, and coordinates the Stem-Pd study, together with Malin Parmar from Lund University. As for the possible effects of the intervention on patients’ health, however, it will take at least two to five years, adds Barker.
The clinical trial has been made possible thanks to previous studies carried out by three large European research consortia: NeuroStemCell, NeuroStemCell-Repair and NeuroStemCell-Reconstruct, all coordinated by the State University of Milan. The conference being held aims precisely to bring together experts from these three research consortia, who will analyze the latest advances and future perspectives of the trials. The conference has been promoted by Elena Cattaneo, senator for life, professor at the State University and expert in research on neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Huntington’s disease, which shares some aspects with Parkinson’s.
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