Treating Parkinson Disease with Adult Stem Cells

Abstract

Parkinson disease affects ~2% of all people 70 years of age and older. People with Parkinson disease exhibit excessive shaking (tremors) at rest, loss of mental function, loss of involuntary function, and psychiatric problems. A proposed experimental cure for Parkinson disease is the transplantation of healthy nerve cells into the brain. It has been proposed that these nerve cells be taken from either aborted fetuses or derived from embryonic stem cells. Due to ethical and moral issues that proposal will probably not become a reality. Endogenous adult totipotent stem cells and adult pluripotent stem cells are very similar to embryonic stem cells. These primitive adult stem cells will form neurons, glia, skin, muscle, fat, cartilage, bone, blood vessels, blood cells, liver cells and pancreas cells under the appropriate inductive conditions. The current report proposes the use of adult totipotent stem cells for the treatment of Parkinson disease. As a test of this proposal, adult totipotent stem cells were utilized in a bedside clinical autologous phase-0 efficacy trial in adult humans with Parkinson disease. The results from this study suggested an efficacious response utilizing adult totipotent stem cells as a treatment modality for Parkinson disease.