Pig’s Brain Cell Transplant for Curing Huntington’s Disease for Human Trial in Early 2006
Pig’s brain cells could be implanted into human brains by the start of next year if trials of a pioneering treatment for Huntington’s disease are approved in the US.
Similar tests on primates have proved “astonishingly successful” in treating the degenerative brain disease, according to researchers who carried out the work at Living Cell Technologies (LCT) in Auckland, New Zealand.
The pig brain cells used in the treatment are not neurons but come from the lining of a brain structure known as a choroid plexus. They have a nurturing role, mopping up toxins, producing cerebrospinal fluid and secreting a range of hormones and proteins called neurotrophins that are essential for brain cell function and protection. In Huntington’s disease, there is a significant reduction in these chemicals.
Al Vasconcellos, head of LCT’s BioPharma subsidiary in Providence, Rhode Island, which plans to carry out the human trials says “It’s the first time the disease itself can be treated rather than simply the symptoms.”
Source: New Scientist
Filed under Health
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