People with the degenerative brain condition gradually lose dopamine-producing neurons, affecting their motor skills and causing their limbs to shake.
Australian scientists have come up with a way to effectively reprogram embryonic stem cells so they can act as the dopamine neurons would normally.
While the technique needs to be refined before clinical trials start, the hope is to one day transplant the reprogrammed stem cells into the brains of Parkinson`s patients.
One of the scientists who helped develop the technique Dr Lachlan Thompson said the transplant would be a more effective long-term treatment for Parkinson`s than current medications.
"It`s not a cure but the potential is that if we reach our goals it will be a therapy that has many benefits over currently available drug therapies," he said.
"One of the big issues with the mainstream treatments for Parkinson`s disease is that the drug therapies are very effective initially but as the disease progresses they become less and less effective to a point where they are not very useful at all."
Parkinson`s Australia chief executive Daryl Smeaton said the transplants had the potential to dramatically improve the quality of life of the 64,000 Australians with the disease.
"That`s the holy grail," he said.
"We talk about research to find a cure but the most important thing is how to make their lives easier."
The stem cell transplant idea builds on work in the 1980s by Swedish scientists who showed it was possible to replace damaged dopamine neurons using fetal tissue.
But while the Australian scientists worked out how to create new dopamine neurons from stem cells, they found only about 30 per cent made the transformation.
Most remained as stem cells, which if transplanted into a human brain can grow uncontrollably and cause tumours.
Dr Thompson and his fellow researches at the Florey Neuroscience Institute and University of Melbourne are working out how to isolate the new dopamine neurons from the left-over stem cells.
"There is still a lot of basic research to do to develop this technology to a point where it would be safe to proceed with trials in patients, however, there`s no reason to think that it couldn`t happen within the next five to 10 years with the proper funding," he said.
Dr Thompson said there was potential to use similar stem cell transplants to help stroke patients as well as those with heart disease and leukaemia.
(U.A050/H-AK)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
