In a first, scientists have treated a Parkinson’s disease patient with his own skin cells — repurposing them to become key brain cells that the disease kills off.
Two years after receiving the experimental treatment, the patient has had no adverse effects, his doctors report. His symptoms, meanwhile, have either stabilized or gotten somewhat better.
“The improvement has been modest,” said senior researcher Kwang-Soo Kim, who directs the molecular neurobiology laboratory at the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital, in Belmont, Mass.
