Stem Cell Transplants Treat Alzheimers and Parkinsons Disease Research Paper

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia, while Parkinson’s disease is known as a debilitating neurodegenerative disease that affects significantly more men than women. The two disorders have some similar symptoms but are also very different. With regards to treatment, no standard intervention has been developed for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disorder. The only existing drugs are those that address some of the symptoms. Likewise, there is no standard therapy for those with Parkinson’s disease. But lifestyle changes, approved drugs, and surgical operations can be recommended to address symptoms. Nevertheless, stem cell research has shown a lot of promise in helping to restore and regenerate destroyed brain tissues and is, therefore, currently being tested to help treat brain disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease. This work looks at what the evidence is saying about the efficacy of stem cell transplants approach in the treatment of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. It also investigates the possible drawbacks of using the approach.

Introduction

Expectations from medical researchers to come up with a breakthrough treatment for the most widely-occurring neurodegenerative ailments in the French population, namely, Parkinson's Disease (PD) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD), which impact nearly 200,000 and 900,000 individuals, respectively, are now higher than ever before. Considering the nation's aging population, these figures are expected to continually climb, with around 1.3 million persons expected to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's by the year 2020 (Alzheimer’s Association, 2015). PD represents a neurodegenerative ailment that is marked by dopaminergic neuron degeneration within the pars compacta area of the brain's substantia nigra (Hwang, Gill, Pathak, & Subramanian, 2018). The degeneration occurs due to dopamine-generating nerve cell degeneration within the substantia nigra, which is a mesencephalon area responsible for controlling movement. The degeneration leads to lower levels of neurotransmitter, dopamine, within the patient's brain, vital to body movement regulation.

Parkinson's' clinical symptoms emerge when roughly 70 percent of neurons that produce dopamine get damaged. They include bradykinesia (or a slowing down of physical movement), tremors or shaking, muscular rigidity or stiffness, pain, and impairment in coordination and balance (i.e., postural instability). Disease prevalence is approximately 1.5 times more in males as compared to females; further, PD rates grow with age, with the disease impacting around one to two percent of individuals aged above 70 years. While its causes are yet to be determined, several research scholars claim the disease emerges as a reaction to non-genetic…

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…pathways include paracrine effects, immune-modulation, differentiation, and proliferation. Pre-clinical body of research on stem cells shows that the benefits and drawbacks are dependent on stem cell source and type (Bali et al, 2017).

Conclusion

On the whole, stem cell treatment has created great hope among patients diagnosed with multiple degenerative problems and ailments; however, an in-depth assessment of likely risks and risk factors of stem cell-grounded medications is pivotal prior to its widespread approval for clinical administration. For every such medication, the likely patient risks must be appropriately assessed; moreover, distinct inherent stem cell characteristics as well as safety information already acquired about similar product kinds must be taken into consideration. Furthermore, external risk factors such as production, storage, handling, and therapeutic/clinical risk factors may generally contribute to patient risk. In the course of risk assessment, safety-related knowledge of similar medications based on stem cells might prove highly valuable. Established or recorded risks, established risk factors, and likely or anticipated risks ought to be taken into consideration as well during risk assessment (Herberts et al, 2011).

Further studies are needed to establish the best PD and AD model for treatment of the diseases. There is also a need to establish…