Adult Neural Precursors for Parkinson's

Seoul, South Korea -

Fetal cell therapy has been previously used in clinical trials for treatment of Parkinson's Disease, although with little success (Olanow et al. A double-blind controlled trial of bilateral fetal nigral transplantation in Parkinson's disease. Ann Neurol. 2003 Sep;54(3):403-14).

It a recent paper (Shim et al. Generation of Functional Dopamine Neurons from Neural Precursor Cells Isolated from the Subventricular Zone and White Matter of the Adult Rat Brain using Nurr1. Stem Cells. 2007 Jan 18) the use of adult neural precursors isolated from the subventricular zone (SVZ) and white matter (WM) areas of the rodent brain is proposed. The authors enhance ability of isolated cells to make dopamine by transfection of the cells with the transcription factor Nurr1.

Developmentally, it is established that Nurr1 is essential for the formation of the dopaminergic system. In fact, some researchers have suggested that malfunction of Nurr1 may be associated with Parkinson's. This is in part because diminished levels of Nurr1 are found in the brains of patients with Parkinson's who have died. Nurr1 is known to be critical for the survival of mensencephalic dopaminergic neurons through its interaction with dopamine transporter (DAT), vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), and l-aromatic amino acid decarboxylase (AADC). All of these enzymes are critical for both the making and storing of dopamine in neurons.

The paper demonstrated that the Nurr1 overexpressing adult neural precursors were sufficient to induce reversion of the symptoms of Parkinson's in a rat model.

This study poses the question whether "off the shelf" cell lines can be generated and implanted for treatment of Parkinson's.

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