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Israeli Therapy Uses Adult Stem Cells to Treat Parkinson's Disease
Israel Faxx
30 March 2005
By ISRAEL21c.org ([c] 2005)
Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics has developed a novel stem cell therapy to treat Parkinson's Disease - using a patient's own bone marrow stem cells to produce the missing chemical that enables restoration of motor movement. The process - which successfully alleviated symptoms of Parkinson's in rats - will be tested on monkeys next year, with human clinical trials scheduled for the following year.
About 1.5 million Americans have been diagnosed with Parkinson's, a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disease. Parkinson's affects those brain cells responsible for production of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that directs motor movement. Insufficient dopamine levels result in tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement and impaired balance.
The Tel Aviv-based BrainStorm uses adult stem cells to repair neurological damage. Developed at Tel Aviv University, the company's propriety technology - NurOwn - has been proven capable of generating neuron-like cells derived from human bone marrow. The cells produce dopamine, which can then be implanted into the PD patients.
NurOwn was developed by Prof. Eldad Melamed, Head of Neurology of the Rabin Medical Center and member of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, together with Tel Aviv University cell biologist Dr. Daniel Offen and Dr. Yosef Levy. In June 2004, BrainStorm acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to commercialize NurOwn technology through a licensing agreement with Ramot, the technology transfer company of TAU.
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