Severance Hospital’s research results showed that Parkinson’s disease patients treated with embryonic stem cell-derived midbrain dopamine neuron treatment improved enough to play badminton and table tennis within one year of treatment. To them S BiomedicsCell therapy manufactured and supplied by was used.
Severance Hospital confirmed this on the 12th, as a team led by Professor Pil-Hyu Lee of the Department of Neurology and Professor Jin-Woo Jang of the Department of Neurosurgery at Korea University Anam Hospital implanted low and high doses of cell therapy into 12 patients with Parkinson’s disease and observed their progress one year after the surgery. revealed.
The research team conducted a study by observing three patients who had been administered a low dose (3.15 million cells) and a high dose (6.3 million cells) for a year out of the total of 12 patients.
On the Hohenya scale, which classifies Parkinson’s disease symptoms into levels 1 to 5 according to severity (the higher the level, the more severe the symptoms), 19.4% of low-dose recipients, whose average was level 3.7, improved to level 3 after taking the drug. In those receiving high doses, there was an average improvement of 44.4% from stage 3.7 to stage 2. The research team explained that this means that patients receiving high doses improved from severe Parkinson’s disease to the early stage of the disease.
On the Parkinson’s evaluation scale, those who received low doses decreased by 12.7 points, improving symptoms by 22.7%, while those who received high doses decreased by 13 points, improving by 25.3%. The Parkinson’s Rating Scale evaluates objective motor performance. The higher the score, the more serious it is.
The side effect of gait freezing, which temporarily stops movement when walking or changing directions, completely disappeared in one out of two people who received the low dose, showing an improvement of 50%. In the three patients who received the high dose, these symptoms disappeared 100% and returned to normal.
The researchers evaluated that the Parkinson’s evaluation scale of some patients who received the treatment fell by 40.7% (a 22-point decrease) after one year, suggesting that the treatment has the potential to become a game changer in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
Among the patients, there was a case where the patient started playing badminton and table tennis within a year of administration. It is known that many of the patients included in the treatment this time showed drug enzymatic symptoms that reduced the efficacy of dopamine drug treatment or had difficulty walking.
One of the patients complained of mild bleeding in the peripheral area, but the researchers explained that it was unrelated to the transplant site. There were no unusual neurological abnormalities or side effects. According to the clinical trial plan, hospital researchers plan to follow-up and monitor progress for up to two years after transplantation.
Kim Dong-wook, a professor in the Department of Physiology at Yonsei University College of Medicine, said, “As a patient who had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for a long time began to enjoy playing badminton and walking after receiving the treatment, this fundamental treatment will contribute to helping patients regain a healthy life.”
Reporter Lee Ji-hyeon bluesky@hankyung.com
