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Stem Cells: An Answer to Treat Neurodegeneration?

Saurabh Bandhavkar

The demographic studies carried out in India reveal that approximately 10% of the population is over the age of 60. Statistics also reveal that by the year 2021, every seventh person will be a senior citizen. This pattern of ageing poses some serious health issues because with age comes age related disorders. The most pronounced amongst these are the neurodegenerative disorders, which are primarily characterized by neuronal loss /death in the brain or the spinal cord. In the brain, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Huntington’s disease (HD) result in loss of neurons, while specific and localized loss of dopaminergic neurons can be seen in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Loss and degeneration of motor neurons in the brainstem and spinal cord is a characteristic feature of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In India, approximately 6 million people are living with these disorders. Though it is known that these disorders have neural pathologies, the exact mechanism behind neuronal loss is not yet clearly understood. As a result deciphering efficacious treatment methods for such disorders remains elusive. This lack of treatment methods poses a global burden on the society. Research is extensively carried out to target these diseases at a cellular level. Increasing attention over the past few years has been given to the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders by the use of stem cells. This review will focus mainly on current stem cell research carried out for neurodegenerative diseases, particularly in context to AD, PD, HD and ALS.