LCT moves closer to Parkinson’s cure

Living Cell Technologies (LCT) reported today that its NTCELL cell implant product for neurodegenerative conditions has demonstrated effectiveness in two pre-clinical models of Parkinson's disease.

Using a rodent model in one study, the implants were placed in the affected part of the brain, the nigro-striatum.

Read more about xenotransplantation and Living Cell Technologies here.

Over the four-week period of the trial, LCT reported that abnormality had been reduced by 56 percent in rodents given NTCELL compared with those given similarly implanted empty capsules, with terminal examination revealing significant repopulation of the affected area of the brain with dopamine containing cells.

The nigrostriatal pathway is one of the four key dopamine pathways in the brain, and is particularly important for the production of movement. Loss of dopamine neurons in this area is one of the main symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

LCT reported similar improvements from an ongoing study with a comparable non-human primate model. A longer term study, results from this experiment are expected to be announced in the second quarter of next year, after whihc LCT hopes to have the critcial validation needed to progress to human trials.

“This treatment strategy is quite different from previous attempts by others at cell therapy which have been centred on implanting brain dopamine-producing cells,” said LCT medical director Professor Bob Elliott.

“NTCELL offers those who suffer from neurodegenerative conditions a new hope and an alternative to the ongoing deterioration that is expected despite the best of conventional therapies.”

He explained that the implantation of the choroid plexus cells which comprise NTCELL has been shown to either relocate of regenerate subject’s own dopamine-producing cells, the impetus of this process being the hormone-like secretions coming from the implants.

LCT has reported this type of brain repair in a number of publications using modelling of other neurodegenerative diseases characterized by brain cell loss, including Huntington’s disease, central nervous system disease and trauma.