Stem Cell Approaches for Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases are devastating age-related disorders severely affecting the patient, caregivers, and enormously increasing the financial burden of the nation. Despite decades of hard work both in laboratory and clinic, the effective treatment specifically designed for a patient is still far from reach. Stem cell therapy, though with several challenges including limited differentiation potential of adult stem cells, ethical issues with using embryonic and fetal stem cells, tumor formation upon transplantation of cells, etc., offers enormous potential for treatment of several neurodegenerative diseases. Pharmacological drugs currently available in the market on the other hand are mainly for alleviating the symptoms and not for treating the disease per se. The efficiency of drug delivery across the bloodbrain barrier, stability, efficacy, and side effects these drugs show on patients are some of the hurdles pharmacological approach has to overcome. A detailed understanding of these complicated diseases at molecular level followed by the right combination of specifically tailored stem cell therapy and/or effective drugs e.g. MS-818 used to increase the endogenous stem cell population might be the best course of action in coming years for patients with little time left after their diagnosis.