Stem Cell Therapy For Neurological Disorder

Research advancements in stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine have shown immense promise in the treatment of complicated degenerative diseases like arthritis, MND, and neurological disorder. Reports have shown that stem cells can differentiate into neurons and therefore might be a great candidate for reversing conditions of dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. Let us briefly discuss some neurological disorders that have been treated using stem cell therapy to yield positive results.

What are neurological disorders?

To realize the potential of stem cells, we are here discussing about; we need to know the basic mechanism of our brain. Our brain is like the central processing unit of our body! All the information regarding even the minute function our body performs is generated and controlled by our brain. In order to fulfill these requirements, it has different sections in it such as memory, cognitive functions, control, etc. The information is generated depending upon the body’s requirement and passed on in the form of a signal. These signals are the kind of a language our brain uses to pass on the information. The information is passed through the network of cells known as neurons of the brain to different organs via the spinal cord. The signals are coded in the brain and decoded by the particular organ to receive the message, same as the current software technology, what we used in our day to day life. Although the computer has only one organ, the monitor; whereas our body has many, such as heart, muscles, liver, etc. You can now understand the complexity of the mechanism the brain has to perform in order to keep us going! If any time, the functional capacity of any of these regulatory bodies is damaged, we can face a lot of trouble to perform our daily chores of functions. Most of the times, in any case of neurological disorder; it has been commonly observed that due to some genotypic or phenotypic challenges, neurons are severely hampered and are totally unable to pass on the information, for what they are required to! Like in ALS, neurons are severely damaged to pass on the information to muscles and hence muscles are non-functional. Similarly, in Alzheimer, due to protein deposition, function of neurons in the memory section of the brain is affected and hence slowly and progressively the person loses his ability to memorize.

Thus, in case of all brain disorders, scientists have adopted a common approach to use stem cells to replace the damaged neurons, which have already functionally lost due to diseased conditions such as dopamine-producing neurons in case of Parkinson’s Disease.

How can stem cells be used in neurological disorders?

 Stem cells cannot be used for replacing dead or damaged neurons in the case of a variety of disorders, but might as well be useful in various other ways, such as supporting the diseased cells to boost up and as well controlling or adjusting the microenvironment to speed up the process of central nervous system. Thus, many scientists are supporting the fact that the stem cells can be uniquely useful in diseased condition to replenish, rejuvenate and repair; maybe not only by replacing new neurons but also by reducing inflammation.

Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is an infant disorder caused by brain damage during pregnancy, delivery, or shortly after birth. The damage is mostly accompanied by symptoms of seizures, speaking difficulty, blindness, deafness, mental retardation, and motor coordination difficulties. Stem cells have the ability to repair brain tissues besides rejuvenating the damaged tissue environment and several studies in animal models have shown significant improvement of ischemic and traumatic brain injuries like palsy conditions by stem cell therapy. Therefore, translating these experiments and appropriate studies on the human conditions of the palsy is the best way to cement the approach of regenerative medicine for cerebral palsy treatment.

Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a complex gradually progressive neural degeneration disorder that leads to the loss of brain cells that control thought, memory, and language. This disease was described by Dr. Alzheimer who discovered the formation of amyloid and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. Stem cell therapy is a promising treatment regime to regenerate healthy brain cells and neurons to retain memory and brain functioning. In animal studies, research has found that bone marrow-derived human stem cells, processed with bromodeoxyuridine, can differentiate into brain cells after being implanted in adult rat brains. Neural stem cell grafts also present a potential strategy for many neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s Disease treatment, as these cells of the graft can migrate to the damaged brain areas and form the required type of cells, thus supporting regeneration and rejuvenation.

Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder that affects body movement with symptoms of tremors, loss of balance, dementia, and stiffness. In the case of Parkinson’s, researchers have reported that the processing of stem cells to differentiate into dopamine-producing neurons has helped in Parkinson’s disease treatment with a reduction in tremors and muscle rigidity. Other cell therapies include fetal-derived neural stem cells that can regulate other stress factors like oxidative stress affecting the severity of the disease. Moreover, stem cell therapy has also been shown to reduce the levels of alpha-synuclein, which is a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Other related neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis and ALS have also seen a fair share of stem cell therapy-based positive effects with a significant reduction in the disease symptoms. The potential of stem cells to differentiate into different body cell lineages is the key to such amazing therapeutic possibilities for the neurological disorders which have been devoid of any cure to date. Advancements in the field of Stem Cell Research research have further improved the processing and differentiation ability of these cells according to the requirement of the tissue healing environment in case of complex disorders like neurological disorder and neuromuscular disorders in our body.

Although this stem cell potential almost plunges the medical healthcare services into a golden future of possible therapeutic cure of several other chronic diseases, the fact remains that related ethical and clinical challenges are daunting. On that note, although stem cell therapy has been emerging as a popular alternative therapeutic approach, several people are not well aware of the treatment and its limitations.

So, if you have any queries related to how Stem Cell Therapy works or are curious about knowing the effects of stem cell therapy in case of neurological disorder contact [email protected].