By Bradley J. Fikes U-T 5:53 p.m.Sept. 6, 2013
CARLSBAD International Stem Cell Corp. has teamed up with North Carolina's prestigious Duke University to test a stem cell therapy for Parkinson's disease.
It aims to replace certain brain cells destroyed in Parkinson's, a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive loss of movement. These cells produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter enabling movement. No one knows why the cells are destroyed, and there is no cure.
The Carlsbad-based biotech says it can turn stem cells into new dopamine-making neurons, which doctors can transplant into the brain, restoring normal movement. Its therapy has already been successfully tested in a small trial in rats and African green monkeys.
The company could apply to begin a human trial by the middle of next year if all goes well, said Simon Craw, executive vice president of business development.
Patients might get relief for 10 to 15 years, said Mark Stacy, a Duke University neurologist and Parkinson's disease researcher who heads its clinical trial division. More animal tests will be performed before a human trial is conducted, he said.
There is scientific precedent for the trial from fetal brain cell transplants about 20 years ago, Craw said. Results were mixed. Some patients experienced improvement, while others did not. Craw said researchers have learned from those experiments, and now know how to grow cells of the right type, in the quantity needed.
The stem cell trial is one of two being prepared for Parkinson's by San Diego area scientists. The other comes from the lab of Jeanne Loring of The Scripps Research Institute. Both use stem cells that act like human embryonic stem cells. The teams are familiar with each other's work; they have collaborated on some studies.
Each approach is intended to improve on embryonic stem cells, which can turn into nearly any kind of cell in the body. This extreme plasticity makes them attractive to researchers, who hope to tame them to regenerate lost or damaged body parts, or use them as "disease in a dish" models. But embryos are killed to get them, which many people object to on moral grounds.
ISCO makes its stem cells from unfertilized, or parthenogenetic human egg cells. The egg cells are chemically treated to activate them, causing them to make the parthenogenetic stem cells, Craw said. Its technology steers the cells into becoming dopamine-producing neurons.
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Local biotech teams up with Duke Univ. for Parkinson’s trial