How Bioreactors can Revolutionize Parkinson's treatment
Parkinson's disease is?a progressive, mainly idiopathic neurodegenerative disease (significantly affecting nigrostriatal dopamine-releasing neurons), commonly observed with developing age and presented with bradykinesia, tremor at rest, and rigidity. Non-motor symptoms include loss of smell sensation, sleep with limb movements, drooling, constipation, and gastrointestinal disorders. The statistical global data of 10 million people affected with Parkinson’s disease underlines the importance of observing World Parkinson’s Day to create awareness about this common but less understood condition. Though barely noticeable and slow at the onset, Parkinson’s disease with its progressive nature, and receding motor symptoms seriously affects the quality of life of patients.
Treatment options vary from person to person and a multidisciplinary approach combining pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions acts best for disease management. Current medications involving levodopa, MAO-B (Monoamine Oxidase Type B) inhibitors, and anticholinergics provide good symptom control ranging from 4-6 years by mainly providing dopamine substitutes. After a few years, patients grow resistant, and feature adverse drug reactions, with almost every organ getting affected and management being extremely difficult. ?Deep brain stimulation involving stimulation of the Sub Thalamic Nucleus (STN) and globus pallidus interna is also not complication-free. Rather than adding more and more medications or altering the dosage of the drug administered, a novel therapy that can modify the underlying condition of neurodegeneration by regenerating the supply of dopaminergic neurons is needed for Parkinson’s disease patients as a new hope.
Regenerative medicine or cell therapy aims to treat Parkinson’s with stem cells that would be able to grow and differentiate into dopaminergic neurons. After cellular implantation, the progenitor neurons are found to establish afferent and efferent synaptic connections with the host neurons. Pluripotent nature and self-renewal capacity make induced pluripotent stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), and embryonic stem cells (ESCs) excellent candidates for transplantation therapies. Multiple cell isolation sources, low immunogenicity, capability to retain stemness after multiple passages, and low tumourigenic formation make MSCs the forerunners in this arena.
For the cell therapy products to advance to the clinic and reach the bedside, it has to showcase promising results in the clinical trial phase for which millions of cells are needed per patient. Upscaling live robust cells in large numbers while maintaining the stemness and effectiveness in a closed artificial environment is a major challenge. With our vast experience in the bioreactor industry, we make this challenging bioprocess involving expansion and differentiation, a cakewalk in c GMP compliant manner considerably reducing cell processing time and making the process economical.
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DDE can be a one-stop contact for providing customized solutions that do not compromise manufacturing variabilities and increase throughput meeting the Critical Quality Attributes (CQA) of cell therapy products. We strive to maintain sterility and integrity of the process by adopting industry-wise standards as our benchmark and provide the industry with equipment that can aid in the production of safe, effective medicinal products that meet Quality Control regulations throughout the manufacturing.
DDE would also like to explore and partner for the creation and expansion?of novel synergistic processes such as gene therapies, immunotherapies,?and pharmacotherapies by providing manufacturing solutions leading from Design to PPQ to achieve the ultimate goal of developing an effective, economical, and reliable therapy for Parkinson’s disease.?Though the therapy does not promise complete prevention or cure of Parkinson’s, let us strive to improve the quality of life of the affected people and make it less challenging for them.
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