[ad_1]
The researchers reprogrammed these cells into stem cells and then turned them into precursors that produced disease-free neurotransmitters.
The cells became dopamine precursors, a rare neurotransmitter in Parkinson's patients. He is the first patient to receive this treatment. / Getty Images
The story is about what can be thought of as one of the most amazing advances in medicine, though it seems to have come from science fiction books. According to the scientific journal Nature, a Japanese surgeon has transplanted the first reprogrammed stem cells into the brain of Parkinson's patients.
To understand the complexity of the procedure, it is first necessary to clarify what is "reprogrammed" stem cells. Known as officially induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), these cells are cells of the body tissue, such as the skin, that are supposed to return to a state of embryo that can be converted to other types of cells. It is a "normal" cell that scientists have reconstructed into stem cells.
In this case, researchers at Kyoto University have made donor's skin cells a precursor to the cells that produce dopamine. A neurotransmitter, a neurotransmitter, can lead to it in rare cases. People have movement disorders.
Approximately 2.4 million iPS precursors of this new cell, the dopamine, in the brain of a 50 year-old patient suffering from Parkinson's disease have been transplanted. In this process, which lasted for 3 hours, cells were injected into 12 brain regions known as the centers of dopamine activity.
This is the first time that the procedure has been performed on humans, although it has been proved successful in clinical trials targeting monkeys. And the result seems to be on the right track. Jun Takahashi, a scientist who gives neurosurgeons a cell to transplant and reprograms nature Almost a month later, "The patient was fine and had no serious side effects so far." The researchers will monitor for 6 months and will implant 2.4 million dopamine precursor cells into the brain if there are no complications.
So if everything goes well, six patients will follow this procedure by the end of 2020. Takahashi believes that treatment can be sold to patients if the first step is passed and the results are strong enough. Japan's regenerative medicine approval system is accelerating from 2023. "Of course, the outcome depends on how good it is," he said.
This is the second case of using reprogrammed stem cells or iPS in clinical trials. The first intern of the intern was Masayo Takahashi, an ophthalmologist in June, who made retinal cells on the iPS, and he treated certain eye diseases.
Source link