Viartis Response

John and Linda, there are a lot of issues concerning this, that maybe I can't get fully in to an e-mail but I'll try.

 

As far as stem cell is concerned, I'm certainly not a religious objector. I have never had a religion ! However, I am a critic of stem cell use solely for scientific reasons.

 

It is widely claimed that there is massive cell loss in Parkinson's Disease, and that these cells (the dopaminergic neurons) need replacing. Yet not a single study has ever shown that there is massive cell loss in Parkinson's Disease. What was demonstrated is that there is insufficient formation of dopamine in those cells. The cells are there, but they're just not producing enough dopamine. The cells therefore don't need replacing.

 

You went to great lengths to check what happened to previous stem cell surgery patients. However, I would be very wary of what they claimed. People with severe Parkinson's Disease and especially those that undergo surgical treatments are well to be very prone to the placebo effect. Many patoents have claimed a massive reduction is symptoms after a clinical trial when they weren't actually taking anything for it ! I would certainly not make any assessment based on their impressions alone. From those people I would want to know what their symptom scores were before and afterwards, and precisely what their PD drug intakes were before and afterwards. Only from this could an objective assessment of their progress be made.

 

It appears that besides stem cell surgery that patients in China undergo other changes, including drugs, and, if I remember correctly "nutritional balancing". If by this they mean altering the patients nutritional levels then there could be an effect by different means, because somebody's formation of dopamine is entirely dependent upon certain nutrients. Dopamine is made entirely from nutrients.

 

Any drug intake alterations could also affect the pateints symptoms positively. 

 

When additional cells are put in, there is also a fresh supply of dopamine being put it. If there has been non-placebo effects in previous patients then it could be because of this extra dopamine rather than the additional dopamine producing cells.

 

DBS has a persistent effect because it is used persistently. A one off stem cell surgical operation could not cause this type of improvement long term, but possibly as you have suggested, it might manage this in the short term.

 

The one positive sign I have seen from your description of Linda's response is the increased dyskinesia. Although this sounds like a bad effect, it suggests that the dopamine levels have increased, because that's what causes dyskinesia. It depends on whether the increased dyskinesia persists as to whether it is of significance.

 

We will continue to follow on your blog what happens to Linda for weeks and months to come.

 

Viartis