Finding a Cure for an Incurable Disease
Parkinson’s disease is a debilitating condition of movement disorder. It is a neuro degenerative disease caused by the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, part of the midbrain that helps govern reward and movement.
People with Parkinson’s disease experience gradual loss of control over bodily movements affecting how they move, speak and write. Symptoms start from something as simple as slight tremors and may gradually develop into bad posture, stiffness, slow movement, difficulty walking, amnesia and dementia among many other enervating conditions which keep getting worse. Patients may have to struggle enormously to make basic movements and often experience moments of “freezing” where they cannot move at all.
Scientists have been trying for years to grow dopamine-producing nerve cells using stem cells in the lab so they may be able to replace the lost neurons with new, healthy ones. The neuroscientists have injected stem cells into the brain of a 64-year-old Victorian man over an 8-hour-long surgery.
The patient was discharged within 72 hours after a 24 hour later scan after the surgery that revealed no complications. The patient will be scanned at 6 and 12 months to see if the stem cells have transformed into dopaminergic neurons.
The Victorian man was the first among a dozen patients chosen to undergo this revolutionary stem cell procedure at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
The results of this treatment will be validated in two years. For more information on stem cell therapy and research, visit Neo Matrix Medical.