Progression of Treating Alzheimer’s Disease with Stem Cell-based Therapies

Alzheimer’s disease is one form of dementia affecting a significant proportion of the population. The etiology of this prevalent disease is currently unknown. It is postulated that AD can be treated by using stem cell-based therapies by replacing the lost neurons in the atrophic regions of the brain. For these novel therapies to be successful several sources of stem cells have been proposed, such as pluripotent stem cells as well as multipotent stem cells. Proof of concept in animal studies have shown that stem cells can grafted into the affected regions or delivered intravenously into affected parts of the brain. These experiments had improved cognition and memory performance in rodents. The promising results seen in animal models have increased interest in conducting clinical trials using the same technique. In the last 5 years, several treatments have reached phase II clinical trials.