Potential role of Stem cells in the treatment of Neurological Disorders
Patients across the world have benefitted from the use of stem cell therapy for the treatment of neurological disorders. Cell transplantation procedures and their results are also dependent on a multitude of factors like the type of stem cell being used, route of administration, sex of the donor/recipient and the cell dose.
Research using Embryonic stem cells has still been in question due to various ethical reasons. Though stem cell therapy has been a part of clinical trials for various neurological disorders, one of the most recent applications have been its possibility in the treatment of strokes.
Stem cells help to fuel the repair process if injected into the distant arteries or veins from where it travels to the site of injury in the brain. This therapy is more effective when combined with other processes like clot busting and mechanical thrombectomy thus allowing the normal flow of blood to the brain again. Stem cell therapy can also be used for the treatment of diseases which affect the central nervous system like Alzheimers and Parkinson’s disease.
Stem cells for the treatment of strokes: Stroke is one of the leading cause of death across the world and it occurs when blood supply to a particular part of the brain is reduced which might lead to serious side effects to the human body if the blood supply is not restored quickly. A stroke can happen due to various reasons like age, lifestyle, family history, stress levels or even the surroundings.
Strokes can be due to a blood clot ( ischaemic strokes) or due to the bleeding in and around the brain ( haemorrhagic stroke) Strokes are known to be treated using a combination of medicines. Clot buster medicines like alteplase are also being used in order to dissolve the clots and restore the blood flow to the brain. The effectiveness of this medicine depends on the time frame in which it is being administered. It is known to be most effective 4.5 hours after a person suffers a stroke. ( source: NHS)
There are small emergency procedures like thrombectomy which are being performed to remove the blood clots. Asprin, antiplatelets and anticoagulants are also being used to treat the same. In the case of haemorrhagic strokes, medicines to lower the blood pressure are prescribed. In some cases of emergency, a surgery procedure called the craniotomy is also being performed to remove the blood and repair the broken blood vessels.
There has been research going on for a long period of time and it has been found that neural stem cells can also help in the treatment of strokes because they can form any cell in the brain and help in repairing brain damage. This individually though is not a treatment for strokes and has to be used in combination with two or three treatments. The extent to which neural stem cells can be used as an treatment also depends on the amount of damage that has happened to the brain. The neural stem cells being used for treatment can be fetal derived, embryonic stem cell derived or induced pluripotent stem cell derived. These stem cells can help to regain neurological function in the brain.
Stem cells for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease: Alzheimer’s has been one of the most common causes of dementia across the world. 40–60 percent of the cases of dementia are due to Alzheimer’s. It is mostly common in people above the age of 80. It results in the loss of brain cells primarily affecting memory and the ability of the person to function independently.
Research shows that stem cell therapy helps to regenerate neurons, improve memory and replace the damaged cells with healthy cells. Mesenchymal stem cells, embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells are bring used for the same. Animal models are also being used to test its efficiency.
Stem cells for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease: Parkinson’s disease is one of the most common neurological movement disorders which caused due to the death of the cells that produce dopamine or in short the death of the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Apart from the stem cell based approaches, there are also many cell based treatments available.
The most promising type of stem cells found for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease are the embryonic stem cells and the induced pluripotent stem cells. Stem cells are known for their self renewal properties and the ability of these kind of cells to transform into a dopaminergic neurons helps in the treatment of the disease. These are being tested using neural grafts derived from these stem cells and clinical trials are also being held to test the efficacy of neural stem cells.
Hence different stem cell based therapies are coming up for the treatment of neurological disorders though they also have a few challenges. Clinical trials and research on animal models are still going on and they could prove to be really effective the advantages outweigh the disadvantages which in most of the cases they do.
References
1) Corey, S., Ghanekar, S., Sokol, J., Zhang, J.H. and Borlongan, C.V., 2017. An update on stem cell therapy for neurological disorders: cell death pathways as therapeutic targets. Chinese Neurosurgical Journal, 3(1), pp.1–8.
2) Song, C.G., Zhang, Y.Z., Wu, H.N., Cao, X.L., Guo, C.J., Li, Y.Q., Zheng, M.H. and Han, H., 2018. Stem cells: a promising candidate to treat neurological disorders. Neural regeneration research, 13(7), p.1294.
3) Lindvall, O. and Kokaia, Z., 2009. Prospects of stem cell therapy for replacing dopamine neurons in Parkinson’s disease. Trends in Pharmacological sciences, 30(5), pp.260–267.
4) Li, M., Guo, K. and Ikehara, S., 2014. Stem cell treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 15(10), pp.19226–19238.
5) Stoker, T.B., 2018. Stem Cell Treatments for Parkinson’s Disease. Exon Publications, pp.161–175.
6) Baker, E.W., Kinder, H.A. and West, F.D., 2019. Neural stem cell therapy for stroke: A multimechanistic approach to restoring neurological function. Brain and behavior, 9(3), p.e01214.
