2023-07-05 19:15:39
Worldwide, Parkinson’s disease is considered the second most frequent neurodegenerative pathology in people older than 50 years. According to data provided to NotiPress for him Massachusetts General Hospitalfrom World Health Organization (OMS).
Also, the WHO points out that in Mexico, it is estimated that there is a prevalence of 50 new cases each year for every 100,000 inhabitants. Likewise, current cases might increase in the following years due to the aging of the population and the increase in life expectancy. life global.
Under that context, the Massachusetts Hospital General points out that it is essential to have new treatments in order to help patients with Parkinson’s to improve their conditions and quality of life. According to scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital, one of the most reliable alternatives is reprogramming the cells themselves.
That is to say, replace cells of the patient’s skin by cells in the brain, a technique that the experts themselves have described as infallible. “The use of the patient’s own reprogrammed cells is an advance that overcomes the barriers associated with the use of cells from another individual,” the statement reports.
Kwang-Soo Kimdirector of Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at McLean Hospital, assured that this clinical process is a milestone for personalized medicine. “Because they are cells from the same patient, they are readily available and can be reprogrammed so they are not rejected following implantation,” Kim said.
To achieve this advance in the field of medicine, the scientific group reprogrammed the skin cells of a 69-year-old patient embryonic-like pluripotent stem cells. Later, he differentiated them so that they took on the characteristics of dopaminergic neurons, which are often lost when people have Parkinson’s.
After carrying out exhaustive tests with the cells, the team led by Kim asked the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA for its acronym in English) an application for an investigational new drug. After the application was approved, they also managed to get the agency’s ethics review committee to allow hospitals to perform the implantation of cells in the patient’s brain.
Specialists from health institutions emphasize that, currently, drugs and surgical treatments to combat Parkinson’s are intended only to treat symptoms. A solution that makes you lose dopaminergic neurons; however, the solution put forward by Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital is to go further by directly replacing those same neurons.
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