New findings in Parkinson's symptoms in monkeys
Thursday July 19 2007
Ground-breaking work by Dr. Eugene Redmond and the staff at St. Kitts
Biomedical Research Foundation (SKBRF) was published today in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), one of the
world's top science publications. The work was supported by the
United States National Institutes of Health by a grant awarded to
SKBRF for its pioneering studies of transplanting neural cells in
monkeys to treat Parkinson's disease.
Primates with severe Parkinson's disease were injected with human
neural stem cells and were able to walk, move, and eat better and had
diminished tremors, reported the team from St. Kitts, Yale, Harvard,
the University of Colorado, and the Burnham Institute of California.
Although the results are promising, it will be years before it is
known whether a similar procedure would have therapeutic value for
humans, Dr. Redmond president of SKBRF, said.
"Not only are stem cells a potential source of replacement cells,
they seem to have a whole variety of effects that normalize other
abnormalities in addition," Redmond said. "The human neural stem
cells implanted into the primates survived, migrated, and had a
functional impact. It's an important step, but there are a number of
studies that need to be done before determining if this would be of
any value in clinical settings."
Parkinson's disease is caused by a degeneration of dopamine neurons
in an area of the midbrain known as the substantia nigra, which is
responsible for dopamine production. Reduced production of dopamine
in late stage Parkinson's causes symptoms such as severe difficulty
in walking, fewer movements, delays in moving, lack of appetite,
difficulty eating, periods of remaining motionless known
as "freezing," and head and limb tremors.
In this study, five of eight monkeys with advanced Parkinson's were
injected with human neural stem cells and three received sham
injections. The monkeys were observed four months before and four
months after the surgery. Those injected with the human neural stem
cells improved progressively for the entire post treatment period and
were significantly different from the monkeys that received sham
injections. Twenty-one additional monkeys were studied for up to
eight months for other biological effects of the stem cells. No
tumors or toxic effects were found. The report summarised work that
has been on-going since 1999 with human stem cells derived from fetal
brain tissue as well as embryonic stem cells from one of the US stem
cell lines "approved" by George W. Bush for funding by the US
government.
Numerous "secondary" reports and commentaries of this paper are
appearing, including the Journal of the American Medical Association,
Nature, Discovery, and the Voice of America radio.
Dr. Redmond noted that many present and past workers at the facility
contributed to bringing these studies to a successful conclusion,
including Wellington Sutton, Zyka Nisbett, Clive Wilson, O'Neal
Whattley, Leroy Whattley, Ricaldo Pike, Steve Henry, Angelle James,
Shervin Liddie, Xavier Morton, Samuel Phipps, Wentworth Sargeant,
Junior Swanston, Steve Whittaker and Clive R. Wilson.
Redmond said training and research opportunities continue at the
foundation for local students interested in science and medicine,
with two or more positions for local high school and college students
for summer work, and employment opportunities thereafter.
http://sunstkitts.
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READ THE STUDY HERE http://www.pnas.
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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