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Researchers advance therapy for Parkinson’s,
other diseases
Newswise — By miniaturizing a device that
monitors the delivery of healthy cells,
researchers at Department of Energy’s Oak
Ridge National Laboratory are developing a
powerful instrument for physicians to use in
treating patients with Parkinson’s syndrome,
brain tumors and other diseases.
While cell replacement therapies can be
effective, the challenge is to deliver a
sufficient quantity of healthy cells, said
Boyd Evans III of the lab’s Measurement
Science and Systems Engineering Division.
“Regardless of the source of cells and the
location of delivery, there is a great need
to improve cell viability after the cells
are transplanted,” Evans said. “The vast
majority of transplanted cells do not
survive more than 24 hours regardless of
their source.”
Studies have shown that merely implanting
more cells does not necessarily increase the
number that survive and differentiate into
dopamine-producing, or viable, cells in
Parkinson’s models. The key is being able to
deliver precise quantities of healthy cells
to a targeted location. This requires the
ability to determine if the cells are viable
upon delivery and the ability to make
meaningful measurements. ORNL’s proprietary
instrumented cell delivery catheter allows
physicians to do just that.
“Our approach consists of monitoring cells
that are implanted using a catheter equipped
with a fiber optic probe to perform
fluorescence-based cytometric measurements
on cells as they exit the port at the
catheter tip,” Evans said. These
measurements confirm that the cell is alive
and provide indications of the cell’s
health.
“What we have done is taken the function of
a laboratory instrument and put it on the
tip of a catheter that can make measurements
inside the brain,” Evans said.
Results from several studies underscore the
value of delivering a highly controlled
amount of tissue into the host brain, and
understanding cell viability at the delivery
point is critical for meaningful comparison
of experimental results, according to Evans.
The instrumented catheter is part of a
larger effort to develop a complete system
for collecting healthy tissue from an
individual who is both the donor and
recipient, expanding this tissue in vitro
and implanting the tissue under monitored
conditions.
Joining Boyd in this effort are other
researchers from ORNL, George Gillies of the
University of Virginia, and neurosurgeon
William Broaddus and neuroscientist Helen
Fillmore of Virginia Commonwealth
University.
Funding provided through ORNL’s Laboratory
Directed Research and Development program
was used to develop a prototype device and
demonstrate its functionality for
characterizing cell flows of cell.
Following completion of the LDRD funded
project, NexGen Medical Systems and Kopf
Family Foundation at the University of
Virginia, and the Cullather, Hord and Hafner
Funds at Virginia Commonwealth University
worked on other issues associated with flows
of slurries of cells, such as cell delivery,
cell selection and culturing technique.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the
Department of Energy.
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