wildwilly
12-20-2008, 11:13 PM
Biotechnol J. 2008 Dec 15;3(12):1460.
In this issue.
ETHICAL CRITERIA FOR DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION: Synofzik and Schlaepfer, Biotechnol. J. 2008, 3, 1511-1520.Within the recent development of brain-machine-interfaces, deep brain stimulation (DBS) has become one of the most promising approaches for neuromodulation. After its introduction more than 20 years ago, it has in clinical routine become a successful tool for treating neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease, essential tremor and dystonia. Recent evidence also demonstrates efficacy in improving emotional and cognitive processing in obsessive-compulsive disorder and major depression, thus allowing new treatment options for refractory psychiatric diseases, and even indicating future potential to enhance functioning in healthy subjects. This ethical analysis of empirical evidence from applying DBS to movement disorders and psychiatric disease reveals that wide-spread use of DBS for psychiatric indications is currently not legitimated and that the basis for enhancement purposes is even more questionable. Nevertheless, both applications might serve as ethically legitimate and promising purposes in the future. NEURAL STEM CELLS: Lederer and Santama, Biotechnol. J. 2008, 3, 1521-1538.Recently, intense interest in the potential use of neural stem cells (NSC) in the clinical therapy of brain disease and injury has resulted in rapid progress in research on NSC and the induced reprogramming of differentiated somatic cells to revert to a pluripotent NSC-like state. In this review the authors provide state-of-the art knowledge on the NSC lineage, emphasizing on ground-breaking efforts of cellular reprogramming with the view to generating patient-specific stem cells for cell replacement therapy. This is set against a summary of current practical procedures for the isolation, research and application of NSC. Both provide the backdrop for the translation of recent findings into innovative clinical applications in NSC-based regenerative medicine, with the hope of increasing the safety, efficiency and ethical acceptability of NSC-based therapies in the near future. GENE THERAPY FOR CNS DISORDERS: Terzi and Zachariou, Biotechnol. J. 2008, 3, 1555-1563.Over the last few years, a large number of preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated the potential of gene therapy applications using adenoassociated viral (AAV) vectors. Gene transfer via AAV vectors has been particularly successful for the treatment or adjunct therapy of several central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The present review summarizes the progress on AAV gene delivery models for three different CNS disorders. It discusses advances in AAV-mediated gene transfer strategies in animal models of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and spinal cord trauma and the authors summarize the results from the first clinical studies using AAV systems.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19072918?ordinalpos=3&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
In this issue.
ETHICAL CRITERIA FOR DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION: Synofzik and Schlaepfer, Biotechnol. J. 2008, 3, 1511-1520.Within the recent development of brain-machine-interfaces, deep brain stimulation (DBS) has become one of the most promising approaches for neuromodulation. After its introduction more than 20 years ago, it has in clinical routine become a successful tool for treating neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease, essential tremor and dystonia. Recent evidence also demonstrates efficacy in improving emotional and cognitive processing in obsessive-compulsive disorder and major depression, thus allowing new treatment options for refractory psychiatric diseases, and even indicating future potential to enhance functioning in healthy subjects. This ethical analysis of empirical evidence from applying DBS to movement disorders and psychiatric disease reveals that wide-spread use of DBS for psychiatric indications is currently not legitimated and that the basis for enhancement purposes is even more questionable. Nevertheless, both applications might serve as ethically legitimate and promising purposes in the future. NEURAL STEM CELLS: Lederer and Santama, Biotechnol. J. 2008, 3, 1521-1538.Recently, intense interest in the potential use of neural stem cells (NSC) in the clinical therapy of brain disease and injury has resulted in rapid progress in research on NSC and the induced reprogramming of differentiated somatic cells to revert to a pluripotent NSC-like state. In this review the authors provide state-of-the art knowledge on the NSC lineage, emphasizing on ground-breaking efforts of cellular reprogramming with the view to generating patient-specific stem cells for cell replacement therapy. This is set against a summary of current practical procedures for the isolation, research and application of NSC. Both provide the backdrop for the translation of recent findings into innovative clinical applications in NSC-based regenerative medicine, with the hope of increasing the safety, efficiency and ethical acceptability of NSC-based therapies in the near future. GENE THERAPY FOR CNS DISORDERS: Terzi and Zachariou, Biotechnol. J. 2008, 3, 1555-1563.Over the last few years, a large number of preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated the potential of gene therapy applications using adenoassociated viral (AAV) vectors. Gene transfer via AAV vectors has been particularly successful for the treatment or adjunct therapy of several central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The present review summarizes the progress on AAV gene delivery models for three different CNS disorders. It discusses advances in AAV-mediated gene transfer strategies in animal models of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and spinal cord trauma and the authors summarize the results from the first clinical studies using AAV systems.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19072918?ordinalpos=3&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum