Abstract
Background
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative condition with a considerable health and economic burden. It is characterized by the loss of midbrain dopaminergic neurons and a diminished response to symptomatic medical or surgical therapy as the disease progresses. Cell therapy aims to replenish lost dopaminergic neurons and their striatal projections by intrastriatal grafting. This paper reports the results of an open-label phase I clinical trial (NCT04802733) of an investigational cryopreserved, off-the-shelf dopaminergic neuron progenitor cell product (bemdaneprocel) derived from human embryonic stem (hES) cells and grafted bilaterally into the putamen of patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Twelve patients were enrolled sequentially in two cohorts: a low-dose cohort (0.9 million cells, n=5) and a high-dose cohort (2.7 million cells, n=7). All participants received one year of immunosuppression. The trial achieved its primary objectives of safety and tolerability one year after transplantation, with no adverse events related to the cell product. At 18 months after grafting, putaminal 18Fluoro-DOPA positron emission tomography uptake increased, indicating graft survival. Secondary and exploratory clinical outcomes showed improvement or stability, including improvement in the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) Part III OFF scores by an average of 23 points in the high-dose cohort. There were no graft-induced dyskinesias. The authors conclude that these data demonstrate safety and support future definitive clinical studies.
