We all know how ultimately, for any rare disease or nasty disorder or the dreaded C (Cancer), the one thing that seems loaded with infinite capabilities which comes to mind while designing treatment strategies is the stem cell. These cells are like heroes of the parallel world of medicine- these specialized cells are capable of evolving into any cell type and are presently being used to regenerate whole body organs.
Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease are the two most common neurodegenerative disorders. Neurodegenerative diseases primarily are caused by damaged neurons in the human brains. Neurons are basic units of the nervous system and when damaged, they won’t be able to repair or replace themselves which poses a great threat to the organism itself. The neurons in case of these diseases in particular, progressively die with time/age.
Using stem cells in order to resurrect neurons is a concept that has been a point of focus in numerous studies in recent years. Neurons seem to manifest from slowly-dividing cells that appear to be the remnants of stem cells that existed during fetal brain development.
In a new study by a Hong Kong biotechnology startup- Oper Technology with researcher Ken Yung heading the
Professor Ken Yung advocates that this treatment can benefit more than about 100 million patients around the globe, who suffer from neurodegenerative diseases, including strokes. Although according to researchers, this approach has been observed to be highly successful when tested on rats, the team has yet to start clinical trial to fully evaluate the studies capability and success rate.
