Researchers from the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery and the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) conducted a study that demonstrated that the transplantation of dopaminergic neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells improves the health of vervet monkeys. (Cercopithecus aethiops) con Parkinson.
Aurelio Campos Romo, doctor in biomedical sciences from the UNAM Faculty of Medicine, explained that Parkinson’s disease, described for the first time 200 years ago, is a pathology that causes motor, mental and sleep disorders, among others.
The symptoms of the disease occur in people between 40 and 50 years old, and although the exact causes of its origin are not known, it has been associated with aging, genetic mutations and exposure to chemicals such as pesticides.
It is a neurodegenerative pathology, which causes the death of dopaminergic neurons and is progressive. It manifests itself with obvious symptoms when 80 percent of the neurons have died
explained the expert.
During the presentation of the project Transplantation of dopaminergic neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells in a model of Parkinson’s disease in non-human primates at the UNAM Faculty of Medicine, he explained that several actions have been applied to treat this disease, from care pharmacological to deep brain stimulation.
Although there are improvements with these treatments, especially in young patients, the disease does not stop: the neurons continue to die.
he highlighted.
Campos Romo tests the implantation of dopaminergic neurons in vervet monkeys in which Parkinson’s was induced.
The scientist, with a postdoctorate at the Institute of Cellular Physiology at UNAM, added that many studies of this nature have been carried out in rodents, but the team of scientists with whom he works tests it in primate models (vervet monkeys, Cercopithecus aethiops) prior registration at the National Institute of Neurology and the Faculty of Medicine, in addition to being evaluated and accepted by the Bioethical Research Commissions.
He added that the specimens, in which Parkinson’s was induced from a byproduct of heroin synthesis, underwent baseline evaluations before and after causing the disease.
How to evaluate primates, one of the challenges
In the investigation they had several challenges; one was to determine how the motor behavior of a primate would be evaluated, since in the case of people, for example, a specialist At the Institute of Neurology he sees around 10 or 15 patients a day, which gives him a lot of experience to evaluate how advanced the pathology is, but with primates you do not have the same experience; There are very few people who work with these animals and even fewer who do it with this model.
.
The research team developed a quantitative scheme to evaluate the motor deficiencies of the primates based on the time of movement, in order for them to take a reward with their hand and bring it to their mouth.
After a meticulous protocol to obtain dopaminergic neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells, they were transplanted into the monkeys at certain precise coordinates of the putamen, a structure located in the center of the brain.
Motor evaluation
Once the specimens recovered from surgery, the research team performed a motor evaluation. He observed that “four months after the operation, although they were not restored to one hundred percent, they showed improvements in movement.
Ten months after surgery, the effect on motor behavior remains; That is, the animal can still move quite efficiently, not like a healthy specimen, but it does have an improvement compared to its situation before the transplant.
The study shows that at 10 months, dopaminergic neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells survive in the putamen of non-human primates, and that their presence is associated with a significant improvement in motor performance, compared to data from the same animals before transplantation.
“It’s not magic, I wouldn’t dare say: ‘we already achieved it’, but we are having interesting results that bring us closer to the treatment of this pathology that is as prevalent as it is catastrophic,” he concluded.