Baby steps for cure to Alzheimer's - Human umbilical cord blood reverses symptoms in mice

G.S. Mudur

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New Delhi, May 20: Neuroscientists in India have shown what they say is the first reversal of the behavioural symptoms associated with an Alzheimer's disease-like illness in laboratory mice using cells extracted from human umbilical cord blood.

 

The researchers at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, have shown that a set of primitive stem cells isolated from cord blood and implanted into the brains of mice ameliorated their memory deficits artificially induced to mimic Alzheimer's disease in humans.

 

Akshay Anand and his colleagues at the Neuroscience Research Laboratory at the PGIMER found that a dose of 50,000 of these specialised stem cells improved memory deficits in mice within 60 days, while a dose of 100,000 cells could achieve a similar beneficial effect within 10 days.

 

Their findings, just published in the journal Behavioural Brain Research, raise fresh hopes that human umbilical cord blood - which many private cord blood banks offer to preserve for decades - may some day be used to treat dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease.

 

A report from the Alzheimer's and Related Disorders Society of India has estimated that the country has nearly four million patients with Alzheimer's disease, currently an irreversible and incurable brain disorder marked by severe memory loss, intellectual deterioration and dementia.

 

In 2008, a team of US scientists based at Yale University and the Cedars Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles had shown that low-dose infusions of cord blood cells into mice with Alzheimer's-like disease significantly reduced the amount of beta-amyloid plaque, a key pathological signature of the disorder. The Chandigarh scientists implanted the specialised stem cells from cord blood directly into the brains of mice that had received infusions of beta-amyloid plaque to simulate the conditions of Alzheimer's disease. The mice developed deficits in memory assessed through experiments in the laboratory.

 

The researchers implanted the stem cells into the hippocampus - a key memory zone in the brain - of the mice and observed improvements in their memory tests. While the stem cells did not transform into neurons, or brain cells, their implantation into the brain appeared to increase the amount of two growth factors named BDCF and CREB, which have been observed to be suppressed in the mice with Alzheimer's disease-like illness and in patients with the disease.

 

"The data look convincing - the cell implants (appear to be) having a beneficial effect in this Alzheimer's disease mouse model," professor Colin Masters at the University of Melbourne in Australia told The Telegraph. "If this effect is driven by an increase in growth factors like BDNF, this will provide an impetus for further studies to increase BDNF in other models and eventually in humans," said Masters, an authority on the pathways of Alzheimer's disease, who was not associated with the PGIMER study. An Indian scientist who specialises in stem cells said the results are encouraging.

 

"This is quite exciting, but should be seen as preliminary," said Asok Mukhopadhyay, a research scientist at the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi. "The best part is the positive effect on memory, but the mechanisms through which the cells act in the brain needs to be deciphered."

A senior official in the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said the findings also highlight the need for commercial cord blood banks to honestly inform potential customers that applications of human umbilical cord blood for many illnesses is yet to be scientifically established.

"Some cord blood banking companies are luring parents into investing to preserve cord blood by claiming it may help cure some 80 diseases," said Geeta Jotwani, deputy director-general of the ICMR, New Delhi.

 

"This is misleading - for many conditions, including Alzheimer's disease, the utility of stem cells from cord blood banks has yet to be proven through humans studies," Jotwani told this newspaper.

 

She said the ICMR is currently formulating a set of guidelines for the collection, storage and release of human umbilical cord blood. Several cord blood banking companies are calling on couples expecting a child to preserve the baby's umbilical cord blood in freezers for Rs 20,000 or more.

 

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150521/jsp/nation/story_21292.jsp#.VXg1zJHRqih 

 

 

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