Here is some interesting stem cell research news released today. Scientists from UW-Madison, have devised a way for progenitor cells, derived from the stem cell line, to sneak past the blood brain barrier to produce and deliver a critical growth factor that has been shown clinical promise in treating, or ameliorating, Parkinson’s disease:
Writing today in the journal Gene Therapy, UW-Madison neuroscientist Clive Svendsen and his colleagues describe experiments that demonstrate that engineered human brain progenitor cells, transplanted into the brains of rats and monkeys, can effectively integrate into the brain and deliver medicine where it is needed.
The Wisconsin team obtained and grew large numbers of progenitor cells from human fetal brain tissue. They then engineered the cells to produce a growth factor known as glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). In some small but promising clinical trials, GDNF showed a marked ability to provide relief from the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson’s…
In an effort to develop a less invasive strategy to effectively deliver the drug to the brain, Svendsen’s team implanted the GDNF secreting cells into the brains of rats and elderly primates. The cells migrated within critical areas of the brain and produced the growth factor in quantities sufficient for improving the survival and function of the defective cells at the root of Parkinson’s.
“This work shows that stem cells can be used as drug delivery vehicles in the brain,” says Svendsen, a professor of anatomy whose laboratory is at the UW-Madison Waisman Center.
More at the University of Wisconsin…