INTRAPUTAMINAL stem cell therapy demonstrates 12-month safety, survival, and clinical motor stabilization in moderate Parkinson’s disease.
Investigators evaluating the STEM-PD product reported 12-month outcomes from eight individuals with moderate Parkinson’s disease who received bilateral intraputaminal grafts. Patients received stereotactic infusions along five tracks per hemisphere across two escalating dose cohorts. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging confirmed precise delivery and ruled out space-occupying lesions or abnormal tissue overgrowth. No serious adverse events stemmed directly from the cell product itself, and investigators recorded no graft-induced dyskinesias in the off-medication state. Primary risks centered on standard triple immunosuppression regimens, which led to a fatal opportunistic fungal infection in one participant ten weeks postoperatively.
Positron emission tomography revealed focal tracer uptake within grafted putaminal targets, confirming functional dopamine progenitor survival. High-dose recipients exhibited an average putamen-to-caudate uptake ratio rise exceeding eleven to fourteen percent across both hemispheres. In contrast, non-grafted caudate structures exhibited expected signal declines reflecting background degenerative disease course. Transporter binding remained stable, matching expected delayed dopamine transporter expression during neuronal progenitor maturation.
Clinicians observed meaningful motor stabilization alongside significant drops in pharmacologic dependency. Six of seven surviving participants reduced their baseline daily levodopa equivalent dose, reaching median reductions of nearly sixteen percent in the low-dose cohort and over twenty-seven percent in the high-dose group. Diary entries documented expanded daily on-time without troublesome dyskinesia alongside shortened daily off-time intervals among high-dose recipients. Cognitive indices, psychiatric assessments, and global quality-of-life scores remained stable over the twelve-month observation period. Investigators will track participants through thirty-six months to gauge ongoing graft maturation, axonal reinnervation, and durable symptomatic relief.
Long-term assessment across ongoing clinical cohorts will determine whether persistent graft survival translates to permanent functional recovery and sustained independence from dopaminergic pharmacotherapy.
Reference
Paul G et al. Human embryonic stem cell-derived dopaminergic cells for Parkinson’s disease: a phase 1/2 open-label trial. Nat Med. 2026;32(9):3449-3457.
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