Parkinson’s Disease

How risky are stem cell trials for Parkinson’s beginning in China?

February 1, 2021 / By / 16 Comments
Brain-PET-scan, stem cells

New human clinical trials using derivatives of pluripotent stem cells in China for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) have raised expectations and some eyebrows. PD is a neurodegenerative condition, sometimes diagnosed or followed by PET scans such as the one at left, characterized by loss of dopaminergic neurons leading to severe and sometimes life-threatening symptoms. Pluripotent stem …

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Parkinson’s IPS cell trial in Japan switching to allogeneic

December 22, 2023 / By / 21 Comments
Jun-Takahashi

What’s better for stem cell trials such as for vision loss or Parkinson’s Disease: allogeneic or autologous cells? In a major shift earlier this year, the induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cell trial in Japan for treatment of macular degeneration (MD) switched gears from using the patients’ own cells (called “autologous”) to using banked cells from …

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Guest Post from Jeanne Loring: Patients talk stem cells. The FDA listens.

February 1, 2021 / By / 5 Comments
Jenifer-Raub

By Jeanne Loring Last Tuesday I visited the FDA headquarters in Maryland, for a meeting called Public Meeting on Patient-Focused Drug Development for Huntington’s and Parkinson’s Diseases. The FDA holds about 6 meetings on different diseases each year, inviting patients and advocates to speak while a panel of FDA directors listens. The FDA representatives at …

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Trial of Stem Cells for Parkinson’s Disease on Horizon

February 1, 2021 / By / 3 Comments

Is a treatment based on stem cells for Parkinson’s Disease on the horizon? A Japanese team of researchers led by Dr. Jun Takahashi, professor at Kyoto University is reportedly aiming to start on human studies of an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-based treatment for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) as early as fiscal year (FY) 2014. In …

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Parkinson’s Disease, promising new results on iPS cells

February 1, 2021 / By
Parkinsons-Disease-stem-cells

UPDATE: A second recent study, this one in Nature Genetics has found a novel genetic link between the immune system and Parkinson’s Disease. The authors were screening for genomic variants unique to Parkinson’s patients, finding known ones but also a novel linkage. The link was with the HLA region, known to play a key role …

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