California-Based Company to Roll Out World's First Stem Cell Therapy On Parkinson's Disease

A California-based company has received approval for trying out the world's first stem therapy on patients affected with mild to severe Parkinson's disease.

The company has decided to conducted the trial on 12 Australians because they think that the nation's clinical trial system is more "interactive."

‘Parkinson�s Disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease and affects over seven million people worldwide. Currently, there is no cure, but a new stem cell therapy conducted in Australia increases the hopes for a treatment.’

"The Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia cleared the International Stem Cell Corporation's submission to trial the treatment in twelve patients with moderate to severe Parkinson's disease," the company announced.

Researchers will implant replacement brain cells, called as neural precursor cells which will finish maturing in the brain into the kind of neurons destroyed by the movement disorder. These neuronal cells will be derived from the company's parthenogenetic stem cells, which are produced from unfertilized human egg cells.

The trial will happen at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and will involve between 30 and 70 million neural cells being implanted into the participants' brains.

"We are very pleased to start the first human study of ISC-hpNSC's for the treatment of this debilitating disease. There is a large unmet medical need for new treatments that may halt or reverse the progression of Parkinson's disease and we believe our human neural stem cells may fill this need for the millions of people with this disease. We look forward to reporting on the progress of the clinical trial over the coming months," said Andrey Semechkin, ISCO chief executive officer.

Source: Medindia