24-07-08(18:10:03)
Authors:
Roger Barker
Institutions:
Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair, University of Cambridge, Forvie Site, Cambridge, CB2 2PY, United Kingdom
Title of abstract : Can cell therapies really ever help treat Parkinson’s disease?
Abstract text:
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder that typically presents later in life with a combination of motor abnormalities along with affective, cognitive and autonomic disturbances. The core pathological event is the loss of the dopaminergic nigrostriatal pathway such that dopaminergic drug therapies are often very effective in the early stages of disease. However with disease progression and chronic use of these drugs, problems arise such that the therapies become less effective and induce their own unique side effects. As a result there has been a search for curative therapies which over the last 20 – 30 years has concentrated on strategies designed to replace the dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra, most notably with fetal ventral mesencephalic allografts.
Clinical trials using this approach have though proven inconsistent and reasons for this will be discussed. In particular I will discuss the notion of heterogeneity of disease highlighting the fact that there may only be certain population of patients with PD who can benefit from such targeted dopaminergic cell therapies. I will then go on to discuss what factors relating to the transplant itself may influence its success before going on to discuss how emerging stem cell therapies will impact and integrate into this reparative approach.
Finally, I will discuss the emerging consensus on how future cell therapies for PD can best be taken forward from the laboratory into the clinical domain.
My work is sponsored by the Parkinson’s Disease Society, UK.
