Stem-cell therapy is a 'big leap' for Parkinson's treatment

Calling it a "big leap in the field" of Parkinson's disease treatment, the journal Nature reported today that a stem-cell therapy improved patients' symptoms in a clinical trial conducted by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, and centers in New York and Toronto.

Data from the phase 1 exPDite clinical trial, published in Nature today, demonstrated that injections of dopamine-producing neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells was not only safe 18 months after treatment, but also that some participants patients "experienced visible reductions in tremors," the journal review noted. Results of second trial of human-induced pluripotent stem cells conducted in Japan reported similar results.

The journal review called for larger trials to prove the efficacy of these stem cell-based therapies on the progressive, incurable disorder, which affects more than 1 million Americans and 10 million people worldwide.

Read the full news release on UCI Health.