Cell therapy will guide the future of Alzheimer's disease, says an expert at the University of Navarra on the occasion of World Alzheimer's Day.

"Cell therapy will guide the future of Alzheimer's disease," said Dr. Stuart Lipton, from high school of research Sanford-Burnham Medical Center, in California (USA), during his visit at research center Applied Medicine (CIMA ) of the University of Navarra.

Dr. Lipton is the discoverer of the only drug C for the treatment of patients with Alzheimer's disease. "In this disease, there is excess activity of brain NMDA receptors, which are molecules core topic in processes of report and neuronal death. Our work demonstrated that memantine, a compound initially used in the treatment of influenza, inhibits the disordered activity of these receptors. Memantine blockade has special properties only when NMDA activity is abnormal. Therefore, it does not interfere with normal brain activity or cause significant side effects."

Currently, the treatment of Alzheimer's disease is focused on controlling the symptoms but is not aimed at slowing down the degenerative process. "One of the dramas of this disease is that patients forget the faces and names of the people around them. With the administration of memantine, patients recognize their loved ones again. This is an important advance, but it is urgent to fight to expand the therapeutic arsenal."
Personalized medicine

The research in Alzheimer's disease is focused on achieving a curative treatment for this neuropathology. "There are many basic programs of study that have great healthcare applicability. We have recently successfully applied pluripotent stem cell technology (iPS cells) obtained from skin cells to generate neurons in just a couple of weeks. Undoubtedly, the therapeutic future of Alzheimer's disease lies in this cell therapy subject , which will allow us to provide personalized medicine for each patient.