Parkinson's Disease Treatment Using Patient's Own Cells... KAIST-Trained Scientist Achieves World's First Success

Professor Kwangsoo Kim, a Korean-American scientist from KAIST at Harvard University, has succeeded in treating Parkinson's disease using the patient's own skin cells. Photo by KAIST

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] A Korean-American scientist with a master's and doctoral degree from KAIST's Department of Biological Sciences has succeeded in treating Parkinson's disease using the patient's own skin cells.

KAIST announced on the 2nd that Professor Kwangsoo Kim of Harvard Medical School (Director of the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at McLean Hospital, photo) and his research team successfully conducted the world's first patient-tailored stem cell clinical treatment last month.

The patient-tailored stem cell clinical treatment involves transforming the skin cells of a patient suffering from Parkinson's disease into dopamine-producing nerve cells and transplanting them into the brain.

Notably, patients who recovered through this treatment were able to tie their shoelaces again without immune system rejection and reportedly regained motor abilities sufficient to swim and ride a bicycle.

The news of the successful clinical treatment of Parkinson's disease patients by Professor Kim's research team was simultaneously reported by major global newspapers such as The New York Times, Reuters, Newsweek, ScienceDaily, and USNEWS.

Parkinson's disease is commonly considered one of the three major chronic degenerative brain nervous system diseases alongside dementia and stroke. In South Korea, it is estimated that 110,000 people suffer from Parkinson's disease, with the number of patients increasing annually.

Globally, it is estimated that 6 to 10 million people suffer from Parkinson's disease, including famous individuals such as actor Michael J. Fox, former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, and Pope John Paul II (the 264th pope, reigned 1978?2005), who battled the disease.

Currently, it is known that Parkinson's disease occurs due to the death of nerve cells in the brain that secrete the neurotransmitter dopamine. The main symptoms include muscle tremors, slow movements, body stiffness, gait, and speech disorders.

However, with the success of Professor Kim's research team in clinical treatment targeting Parkinson's patients, there is growing expectation that a new turning point in Parkinson's disease treatment will be established.

Previously, in 2012, Japanese professor Shinya Yamanaka, a Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine, developed the technology to produce induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), but there have been no reported cases of this technology being successfully applied to treat brain disease patients.

Also, globally, only one patient (with macular degeneration) has received cell therapy using their own induced pluripotent stem cells (published in the 2017 New England Journal of Medicine), but no improvement in the disease was observed in that case.

This is why Professor Kim's research team's attempt and success in patient-tailored treatment for Parkinson's disease using induced pluripotent stem cells is considered the world's first. The team is currently undergoing related procedures to obtain FDA approval for this treatment method.

Professor Kim stated, "To prove the safety and efficacy of patient-tailored stem cell clinical treatment, clinical trials involving more patients are necessary. We expect that after about ten years of follow-up research and successful results, personalized cell therapy will become a universal method for treating Parkinson's disease."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.