Stem Cell Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s is a progressive and fatal disease of the brain. It destroys brain cells, causing problems with thinking and behavior along with memory loss. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 50 to 70 percent of cases.

As Alzheimer's progresses, vast numbers of brain cells die. A potential treatment might be to replace dead or injured cells with stem cells. Significant progress has been made in recent years in this line of research. If dead brain cells (neurons) could be replaced, it is thought that mental deterioration could be stopped or possibly reversed. Stem cells may prove to be a way of achieving this goal.

The use of adult stem cells has many advantages, sidestepping the ethical issues and problems of possible immune reactions that occur with embryonic stem cells. However, the problem is that their numbers are very small in adult tissue. In some cases, stem cell niches are difficult to get to without injuring the adjacent tissue. This is what happens in the brain below the cerebral cortex, where adult stem cells are located.

Though stem cells provide an appealing approach for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, there is still much to be learned to create the optimum treatment.