The treatment that is being developed will involve lower risk of cells being rejected by the body since they will be coming from the patient’s own body.

Whitehead scientists recorded success in converting the skin cells of five Parkinson’s patients into neurons that can produce dopamine, the primary neurotransmitter affected by the disease. The lack of dopamine in people with Parkinson’s disease manifest as tremors, rigidity, and difficult slowed movement.

The short term goal of the study is to reproduce dopamine producing cells and expose them to toxins which are suspected to contribute in the development of Parkinson’s. In the long run, the proponents are hoping to use the developed dopamine producing neuron in transplantation to give more meaningful years to potential Parkinson’s patients. The cells of patients afflicted with the disease are shown to have predisposition to it.

The experiments were inspired by a Japanese study in 2007 which showed that mature cells can be reprogrammed back to their embryonic stage. The tweaking involves inserting genes of embryonic cells through a carrier virus.

The team of experts this time improved on the procedure upon finding out that production of the mature cells from the tweaked embryonic state is affected by the virus in them. They have designed a way to take out the virus after completing the delivery.

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