Houston – More than ten million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s, and 60,000 are in the U.S.
It’s a chronic, progressive disease, which means it gets worse over time.
A new therapy, currently in trials, is proving to be a game-changer.
UT Health Houston is the first FDA-approved trial using stem cells to treat Parkinson’s.
While there are other clinics that claim they can treat patients using stem cells, the types of stem cells and proper dosage have not been well studied.
Marty Young is a participant in the UT Health study. It’s a blinded study so he’s unsure whether he was given a placebo or not. However, he says his symptoms have improved since he got the transfusion.
He snaps his fingers, walks, exercises, and said he’s regained a tremendous amount of movement and stability.
“You have to beat this disease back every day,” Young said about his motivation to regularly exercise. “I think that my fellow fighters, my fellow suffers need to understand that their life has changed and if you want to beat this thing, you just have to fight it every single day. You can’t ever give up.”
In the trial, led by Dr. Mya Schiess, some Parkinson’s patients are injected with stem cells from a healthy adult’s bone marrow. Then they are followed for a year.
Dr. Schiess said they’ve seen incredible improvements in daily functions.
“We’re going to get so much information from this trial in the way we’re conducting it that we will be able to move forward with this kind of treatment plan and idea. Stem cells have just tremendous potential, and there’s no reason not to truly believe that, ultimately, when we get them in maybe their right form, from the right tissue, etc., we’re going to have a very powerful treatment and tool.”
Young believes the injection he received has relieved him of symptoms, including a bonus of healing his knee pain moments after the stem cell transplant.
“I had no pain in that knee, and until this day, I have no pain in that knee. They were trying to get the stem cells in my brain and it went to my knee,” Young joked.
Dr. Schiess said they’ve already recruited for Phase 2 of the trial. If the Phase 2 (then, Phase 3) trial is successful, researchers should understand more about how stem cells interact with Parkinson’s and the proper dosage patients need. If all goes well, the next three to five years could bring better treatment for Parkinson’s.
Read this warning about stem cell usage outside of clinical trials here.