Publication date: Jul 13, 2023

Three years ago, Kims team demonstrated that personalized cell therapy could be used to replace dopamine neurons in the first personalized cell therapy in a sporadic Parkinsons disease patient. Investigators used regulatory T cells to supplement neuronal cell therapy and decrease adverse effects of the surgical procedure in rodent models. The most important criterion for cell therapy is safety. The needle trauma induced significant brain cell death. We have now made a major breakthrough using immune cells to improve delivery, survival, and recovery for neuronal cell therapies. Researchers have proposed diverse mechanisms to explain the cell death and added various modifications to improve cell survival. But when we added regulatory T cells to the transplant, survival of the grafted dopamine neurons increased. Co-transplantation of autologous Treg cells in a cell therapy for Parkinsons disease.

Semantics

Original Article