According to a recent study released by The Lancet Neurology, more than 3 billion people worldwide are living with a neurological condition, making it the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide.
The rate of neurological conditions, including neurodevelopmental disorders (such as autism), neurodegenerative disorders (such as Alzheimer’s), movement disorders (such as Parkinson’s), brain injuries, neuroinfections, and multiple sclerosis, has increased by 18% since 1990 and now affects 1 out of every 3 people on the planet.
Currently, limited or no treatment options exist for these conditions. Cell-based therapies, and particularly those involving mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been intensively studied as potential treatment options for neurological diseases.
As part of this review, Soares et al. share current knowledge of MSC-based therapies for neurological diseases and discuss the challenges associated with generating more efficient cell therapy products for these conditions.
According to the authors, the therapeutic potential of MSCs is attributed to their homing property, multilineage differentiation, and paracrine function. Specifically, MSCs are able to migrate toward injured tissues, engraft, and differentiate into functional cells. MSCs have also demonstrated the ability to repair, not replace, damaged cells and tissues.
MSCs contribute to the repair of cells and tissues through the paracrine action which demonstrates a wide range of immunomodulatory, angiogenic, antiapoptotic, and growth factors.
Soares et al. include a discussion of the most recent research regarding the safety, efficacy, and mechanism of action of MSC-based therapy in a number of neurological diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, glaucoma, stroke, spinal cord injury, and autism. According to the authors, while most of the preclinical studies were conducted using animal models, both preclinical and clinical findings have demonstrated positive effects on safety, tolerability, and functional improvement after transplantation of MSCs
Considering the promising potential and identified limitations of using MSC-based therapies for the treatment of neurological disorders, Soares et al. conclude this review by calling for further study with the aim of developing better strategies to obtain larger quantities of healthy cells for use in cell therapies and to reduce the variability of results due to the biological characteristics of MSCs.
Source: Soares MBP, Gonçalves RGJ, Vasques JF, et al. Current Status of Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells for Treatment of Neurological Diseases. Front Mol Neurosci. 2022;15:883378. Published 2022 Jun 16. doi:10.3389/fnmol.2022.883378
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