Health authorities in Japan have approved innovative treatments based on stem cells to treat Parkinson’s disease and acute heart failure, in a move that may represent a major shift in the field of regenerative medicine and open the door to new treatments for diseases that were considered difficult to treat.
Scientific reports stated that these treatments may become available to patients in the coming months, making them the first commercial medical products in the world based on reprogrammed stem cell technology.
New treatment for Parkinson’s disease
Japanese pharmaceutical company Sumitomo Pharma has received approval to manufacture and sell a new treatment for Parkinson’s disease based on transplanting brain stem cells. The treatment aims to compensate for the damaged nerve cells that produce dopamine, which is the substance responsible for controlling movement and whose level decreases in people with the disease.
Clinical trials conducted under the supervision of researchers from Kyoto University showed encouraging results, as cells derived from stem cells were transplanted into a number of patients, which helped improve symptoms in some of them without recording serious side effects during the follow-up period.
Treatment for heart failure
Besides the Parkinson’s treatment, the Japanese Ministry of Health has given the green light to another treatment targeting patients with severe heart failure. This treatment relies on sheets of heart muscle cells that are implanted in the heart to help the muscle repair itself and stimulate the formation of new blood vessels.
It is believed that this technology may help patients who do not respond to conventional treatments such as medications or surgeries.
What are reprogrammed stem cells?
New treatments rely on what are known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), which are cells produced by reprogramming adult cells such as skin or blood cells to return to a state similar to stem cells that are capable of transforming into any type of cell in the body.
This technology was developed by Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2012 after discovering the possibility of reprogramming adult cells to become multipotent.
Conditional approval
The Japanese approval comes in the form of a conditional and time-limited license, which means that the treatments can be offered to patients while scientific data continues to be collected to ensure their safety and effectiveness on a broader scale.
The researchers believe that this step represents the beginning of a new phase in regenerative medicine, as stem cells may allow damaged tissues to be repaired or replaced with healthy cells in the future, giving new hope to millions of patients around the world.