RESEARCH MAY HOLD PROMISE FOR TREATING ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

A compound similar to the components of DNA may improve the chances that stem cells transplanted from a patient’s bone marrow to the brain will take over the functions of damaged cells and help treat Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological illnesses.

A research team led by University of Central Florida professor Kiminobu Sugaya found that treating bone marrow cells in laboratory cultures with bromodeoxyuridine, a compound that becomes part of DNA, made adult human stem cells more likely to develop as brain cells after they were implanted in adult rat brains. The findings were published in the most recent issue of the Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience journal.

Sugaya and his colleagues at UCF’s Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences hope to eventually show that stem cells transplanted from a patient’s blood or bone marrow will be an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases because they can replace cells that die from those ailments. The researchers are working with a $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

“By using a patient’s own stem cells instead of embryonic stem cells, we’re able to avoid the ethical concerns many people have about stem cell research,” Sugaya said. “We also don’t have to worry about the immune system rejecting the new cells.”

Stem cells hold promise for the treatment of many diseases because they are capable of dividing endlessly and developing into many different types of cells in the human body. The researchers at UCF and the University of Illinois at Chicago, where Sugaya taught before moving to UCF last summer, are the first to demonstrate improved memory in adult animals after transplanting neural stem cells into their brains.

A recent Wall Street Journal column described the work as offering “tantalizing” possibilities in treating Alzheimer’s.

Sugaya’s colleagues include Jose Pulido, formerly a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and Sugaya’s wife, Ikuko, a research associate in his UCF lab.

Technologies from the research project are licensed to NewNeural LLC, a company started by Sugaya and two other founders. NewNeural works to develop and commercialize products that improve the brain’s ability to repair and replace damaged brain cells.

ksugaya@mail.ucf.edu