Guest guest Posted April 20, 2002 Report Share Posted April 20, 2002 Gert: No, I have not heard of anyone doing this for MSA, but they are trying it for Parkinson's in Los Angeles. Barbara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 20, 2002 Report Share Posted April 20, 2002 Hi Gert, Not specifically for MSA but there is a report of something similar being done with Parkinson's patients. See below. > There was an article in the Phila Inquirer today about a man with cancer who > had his own stem cells harvested, frozen and implanted at Hopkins? Has > anyone heard about this for MSA? > Gert > Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2002 16:27:40 -0700 > > Subject: Man's own brain cells help treat Parkinson's -study > > An Article I found on AOL Health. Found it very interesting. > > DonnaK > > > Man's own brain cells help treat Parkinson's -study > > By Maggie Fox > > WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) - A transplant of his own brain cells have treated a man's Parkinson's disease, clearing up the trembling and rigid muscles that mark the disease, researchers reported on Monday. > > The researchers believe they isolated and nurtured adult stem cells from the patient's brain, cells that they re-injected to restore normal function. > > " We definitely need to do more studies, " said Dr. Michel Levesque of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who led the study. " This is the first case that shows a promising technique may work. It is an experimental procedure and has to be investigated further before it becomes accepted procedure. " > > More than two years after the experimental treatment, the man has no symptoms of Parkinson's, an incurable and fatal brain disease that starts with tremors and ends up incapacitating its victims. > > Parkinson's is caused when brain cells that produce dopamine die off. Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter or message-carrying chemical that is involved in movement. > > Many different groups of researchers are experimenting to see if these brain cells can be regenerated using stem cells, the so-called master cells that give rise to the various different tissues in the body. > > Some stem cells come from very early embryos, some from aborted or miscarried fetuses and some can be found in a person's own tissues, but they are elusive. > > The study is sure to be used in the debate over the use of embryonic stem cells. Some groups say adult stem cells can be as useful as those taken from embryos. Many scientists disagree and say both adult and embryonic stem cells should be studied. > > CELLS REMOVED FROM PATIENT'S BRAIN > > Levesque said the patient, a nuclear engineer and jet pilot, developed Parkinson's in his 40s. He had tremors and stiffness in his muscles and the drugs used to treat the disease had, as they always do, stopped working. > > His team drilled into the patient's skull and removed a piece of his brain. " We took a tiny piece of cortex measuring probably less than the size of a pea, " Levesque said in a telephone interview. " What we extracted were neural stem cells or progenitor cells. " > > It is hard to tell whether a cell is a stem cell, but they grew the cells in special media, a kind of nurturing soup. > > They checked to make sure at least some of the cells were producing dopamine, and then injected them back into the patient's brain, researchers told a meeting in Chicago of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. > > PET scans of the man's brain, which show brain function, showed that dopamine was being produced and used. " At three months there was a 58 percent increase, " Levesque said. > > But now the man's dopamine production, as measured by PET scans, is back to where it was when he was first treated, which puzzles Levesque, as the symptoms of Parkinson's have not returned. > > He said it is possible that it takes a while for the symptoms to show after dopamine production dies down. Or perhaps PET scans do not show everything that is going on. > > Other cells may also be involved in the processes that underlie Parkinson's, Levesque said. > > It is also possible that the animals used to study Parkinson's do not accurately mimic the human disease, so that humans may react differently to treatment, he said. > > Although the Phase I safety study was done using only the single patient, Levesque said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had given his team the go-ahead to start a Phase II trial, which will include more patients and test for safety and whether the treatment works. > > Levesque and colleagues formed a company to develop the technique, called Neurogeneration. It has been bought out by California-based CelMed Bioscience, a subsidiary of Canada-based Theratechnologies. > > > 04/08/02 16:34 ET > > Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 20, 2002 Report Share Posted April 20, 2002 Hi Gert, Not specifically for MSA but there is a report of something similar being done with Parkinson's patients. See below. > There was an article in the Phila Inquirer today about a man with cancer who > had his own stem cells harvested, frozen and implanted at Hopkins? Has > anyone heard about this for MSA? > Gert > Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2002 16:27:40 -0700 > > Subject: Man's own brain cells help treat Parkinson's -study > > An Article I found on AOL Health. Found it very interesting. > > DonnaK > > > Man's own brain cells help treat Parkinson's -study > > By Maggie Fox > > WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) - A transplant of his own brain cells have treated a man's Parkinson's disease, clearing up the trembling and rigid muscles that mark the disease, researchers reported on Monday. > > The researchers believe they isolated and nurtured adult stem cells from the patient's brain, cells that they re-injected to restore normal function. > > " We definitely need to do more studies, " said Dr. Michel Levesque of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who led the study. " This is the first case that shows a promising technique may work. It is an experimental procedure and has to be investigated further before it becomes accepted procedure. " > > More than two years after the experimental treatment, the man has no symptoms of Parkinson's, an incurable and fatal brain disease that starts with tremors and ends up incapacitating its victims. > > Parkinson's is caused when brain cells that produce dopamine die off. Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter or message-carrying chemical that is involved in movement. > > Many different groups of researchers are experimenting to see if these brain cells can be regenerated using stem cells, the so-called master cells that give rise to the various different tissues in the body. > > Some stem cells come from very early embryos, some from aborted or miscarried fetuses and some can be found in a person's own tissues, but they are elusive. > > The study is sure to be used in the debate over the use of embryonic stem cells. Some groups say adult stem cells can be as useful as those taken from embryos. Many scientists disagree and say both adult and embryonic stem cells should be studied. > > CELLS REMOVED FROM PATIENT'S BRAIN > > Levesque said the patient, a nuclear engineer and jet pilot, developed Parkinson's in his 40s. He had tremors and stiffness in his muscles and the drugs used to treat the disease had, as they always do, stopped working. > > His team drilled into the patient's skull and removed a piece of his brain. " We took a tiny piece of cortex measuring probably less than the size of a pea, " Levesque said in a telephone interview. " What we extracted were neural stem cells or progenitor cells. " > > It is hard to tell whether a cell is a stem cell, but they grew the cells in special media, a kind of nurturing soup. > > They checked to make sure at least some of the cells were producing dopamine, and then injected them back into the patient's brain, researchers told a meeting in Chicago of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. > > PET scans of the man's brain, which show brain function, showed that dopamine was being produced and used. " At three months there was a 58 percent increase, " Levesque said. > > But now the man's dopamine production, as measured by PET scans, is back to where it was when he was first treated, which puzzles Levesque, as the symptoms of Parkinson's have not returned. > > He said it is possible that it takes a while for the symptoms to show after dopamine production dies down. Or perhaps PET scans do not show everything that is going on. > > Other cells may also be involved in the processes that underlie Parkinson's, Levesque said. > > It is also possible that the animals used to study Parkinson's do not accurately mimic the human disease, so that humans may react differently to treatment, he said. > > Although the Phase I safety study was done using only the single patient, Levesque said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had given his team the go-ahead to start a Phase II trial, which will include more patients and test for safety and whether the treatment works. > > Levesque and colleagues formed a company to develop the technique, called Neurogeneration. It has been bought out by California-based CelMed Bioscience, a subsidiary of Canada-based Theratechnologies. > > > 04/08/02 16:34 ET > > Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 20, 2002 Report Share Posted April 20, 2002 Gert, I was not able to find this article in the Inquirer online. Can you give me the title or exact headline? That has been done many times over the last few years for some forms of cancer. But they have not to this point been able to grow adult stem cells into dopamine producing neurons or to my knowledge glial cells which seem to be the cells involved with Parkinson's or MSA. However, many of the treatments involve "Somatic cell nuclear transfer" which will be banned by the Brownback Bill in Congress right now. Legally Somatic cell nuclear transfer is cloning under the terms of this Bill which would outlaw all cloning and do away with existing cancer cure technology. However Feinstein's Bill would ban human cloning except for therapeutic (healing) reasons and allow Somatic cell nuclear transfer. You may remember a recent story of a baby girl born with an incurable cancer. Her parents agreed to Somatic cell nuclear transfer to attempt to have a child with the blood needed to cure the girl. Scientists took an egg and inserted the correct gene needed and fertilized it with the husbands sperm then put it back into her womb where it became a healthy boy (with the blood needed to cure the girl). The last I heard both the boy and girl were doing fine. They cloned the boy from the girl legally. If that is illegal and immoral, then I am immoral as I feel it was great. But I must be out of touch with Christianity anyway as I thought Christ approved of healing people and frowned heavily on war. As far as cloning, didn't God clone woman from Adam's rib? Wouldn't it be like Christ's example for God to show us how to cure ourselves? If you want cures through stem cell research, call or write your congressmen especially your Senators as this Bill may come to a vote within weeks. Somatic cell nuclear transfer would be banned by the Brownback Bill. In Virginia, has announced he will vote for the Brownback Bill even though he admits it may stop cures for many diseases. But Warner is still undecided and needs a push. If ALL killing is bad, how can we accept war? Executions? Take care, Bill Werre ---------------------------------------- GFKN3790@... wrote: There was an article in the Phila Inquirer today about a man with cancer who had his own stem cells harvested, frozen and implanted at Hopkins? Has anyone heard about this for MSA? Gert If you do not wish to belong to shydrager, you may unsubscribe by sending a blank email to shydrager-unsubscribe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 20, 2002 Report Share Posted April 20, 2002 Bill the article was called "A plea to help those coping with illness" Gert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 20, 2002 Report Share Posted April 20, 2002 Gert, Sorry, I still could not find it. Take care, Bill GFKN3790@... wrote: Bill the article was called "A plea to help those coping with illness" Gert If you do not wish to belong to shydrager, you may unsubscribe by sending a blank email to shydrager-unsubscribe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 21, 2002 Report Share Posted April 21, 2002 Bill. The article was in Sunday's Neighbors section of the Phila Inquirer, I get it delivered on Saturday. Sorry, I didn't notice it was Sunday's. Gert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 21, 2002 Report Share Posted April 21, 2002 Bill. The article was in Sunday's Neighbors section of the Phila Inquirer, I get it delivered on Saturday. Sorry, I didn't notice it was Sunday's. Gert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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