| Injection an Alzheimer's first Doctors hope genetically altered cells can slow mental decline 04/11/2001 Washington Post Doctors in California have implanted genetically modified cells into the brain of a 60-year-old woman with an early stage of Alzheimer's disease in an effort to slow her mental decline, members of the research team announced Tuesday.
The experimental surgery, which researchers hope to test in seven other patients, represents the first trial of gene therapy for a degenerative brain disorder, said neuroscientist Mark Tuszynski, who leads the project.
The cells, obtained from the woman's skin, were equipped with a gene to produce nerve growth factor, a natural substance that promotes growth and survival of brain cells. The treatment is not expected to cure Alzheimer's disease, although studies in animals suggest that it may help preserve the recipients' capacity to learn and remember.
"We hope that we can keep people at a higher level of function for a longer time period," said Dr. Tuszynski, an associate professor of neurosciences at the University of California at San Diego and the VA Hospital.
But some experts expressed concern that if complications occur, they may be difficult to treat because there's no simple way to remove the genetically modified cells or stop their action once they've been implanted in the brain.
"It's quite aggressive," said Vassilis Koliatsos, an associate professor of pathology and neurology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. "Growth factors are extremely powerful compounds, and they're not selective for a particular brain system. ... We've got to be watching here."
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive brain disorder affecting 2 million to 4 million Americans. It gradually damages and destroys cells in many regions of the brain, eventually rendering its victims helpless. Current treatments produce only modest and short-lived improvement at best.
Doctors said the patient, a former teacher from Oregon whose name was not released, gave her consent to the experimental procedure. In an eleven-hour operation last Thursday, neurosurgeon Hoi Sang U and his team injected half a million genetically modified cells into each of five sites on the right side of her brain.
It may take several weeks before researchers can detect any possible effect on the woman's brain function and several years before they know whether the treatment is effective.
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