The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : New therapy stems degeneration in Parkinson's patient

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 06, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

New therapy stems degeneration in Parkinson's patient

Staff Reporter

GOOD RECOVERY: Andrew Kisana — Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

Bangalore: In a major breakthrough in the area of stem cell therapy, Manipal Hospital has successfully treated a patient of Parkinson's disease with stem cells here on Wednesday.

With this, the hospital reportedly becomes the first medical institution in the country to use stem cell therapy with some success in the treatment of this debilitating disease.

Announcing this, N.K. Venkataramana, Director, Manipal Institute of Neurological Disorders, and Satish Totey, Chief Scientific Officer of Stempeutics Research (regenerative medicine research wing of Manipal), said that the patient, Andrew Kisana, a 58-year-old U.S.-based Pakistani, had been suffering from Parkinson's for 15 years and he had undergone treatment, including surgery and "deep brain stimulation" (DBC), but nothing seem to have worked well for him.

When he came to Manipal Hospital, his symptoms included tremors in his hand and legs, severe shaking of head, difficulty in walking, swallowing and speech.

He also had episodes of "freezing" wherein a patient has difficulty in locomotion.

Dr. Venkataramana said that in January last year, the patient's bone marrow was harvested at the regenerative medicine department and the mesenchymal stem cells were injected into the part of the brain, which was affected because of Parkinson's disease.

Mr. Kisana had so far received three injections and the improvement had been remarkable, he said.

He said the patient had totally been taken off medication, but the DBC was still on. But how many injections were needed for the patient to come back to normal had not yet been established.

Since his speech was still slurred, Mr. Kisana, communicating with the audience through his laptop, said there was significant improvement in his gait, and the tremors of the limbs and head had stopped completely and handwriting had improved.

"This treatment hits at the root cause of the disease," he said.

"The case has been documented and will be presented at the conference of the Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery Society to be held in Kolkata in October," Dr. Venkataramana said.

The hospital's regenerative medicine department was currently carrying out clinical trials in stem cell therapy in 15 spinal cord injury patients and was also carrying out research in the use of stem cells in patients of heart attack and leg ischemia, Dr. Totey said.

One of the patients with spinal cord injury, Ramesh, who was treated with stem cell injection, said he was not able to move his limbs, had no sensation or control over bowel movements. "After the treatment I am able to pass urine and can move my hands. My sensations have also come back," he said.

Research centre

Manipal Hospital would launch the Stem Cell Research Centre, which would offer courses in regenerative medicine and treatment, R. Basil, CEO of Manipal Health Systems, announced.

Already 25 postgraduates were being trained in this specialty and 10 students had been enrolled for the Ph.D. programme. He said that the company had invested Rs. 20 crore in treatment-related trials and would invest Rs. 25 crore in the next 15 months.

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