This is the first world that gives hope to people with Parkinson's disease. On Friday, November 9, researchers at Kyoto University in Japan said in a statement that they had successfully implanted 2.4 million iPS stem cells into the left brain of a patient with Parkinson's disease. "Induced pluripotent stem cells" or, in French, induced pluripotent cells).
The surgery, which took place last month, lasted three hours, says the medical team. The patient, a man in his fifties, was well tolerated. He will be under surveillance for two years. If no problem appears within six months, doctors will plant another 2.4 million stem cells, this time on the right side of the patient's brain.
Pluripotent stem cells
The second most common disease of the nervous system After Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease affects 200,000 people in France and more than one million in Europe: 8,000 new cases are reported annually in France. According to the Parkinson's Disease Foundation of the United States, the world has 10 million patients of Parkinson's disease.
The disease, characterized by progressive loss of neurons in the gray nuclei of the brain, results in gradual loss of movement control and other motor symptoms, such as tremors and stiffness of the limbs. Currently, treatments are available to "improve symptoms, but without slowing progression of disease," says Karen Parkinson's disease.
This new treatment with iPS stem cells from healthy donors offers new hope to patients. Indeed, these latter have the distinction to be pluripentent: by being transplanted into the brain, they are able to develop neurons that produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in the control of motor skills.
Clinical trial on seven patients announced
This successful article by Japanese scientists probably will not be the last. Last July, Kyoto University announced that a clinical trial would be launched with seven participants aged 50 to 69 years. "I salute patients for their courageous and resolute participation," said Professor John Takahashi, who was quoted on NHK on Friday.
This clinical trial is based on an experiment on monkeys with stem cells of human origin, and reported in an article in Nature in August 2017. "This transplant improved the ability of primates with Parkinson's form to make movements. The survival of complex cells, by injection into the brain of primates, was observed for two years without any tumor onset.
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