Stem Cell-Derived Neurons for the Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases are termed for the age-related chronic and progressive loss of structure and function of neurons, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). One of the major pathological changes in AD is degeneration of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons which connected to the cerebral cortex and hippocampus [1]. The loss of structure and function of dopamine neurons in basal ganglia has been found in PD [2]. Damaging the neurons in basal forebrain and basal ganglia is widely used to make the animal models for the studies of AD and PD. In clinical, patients suffered from neurodegenerative diseases show progressive impaired memory, movement and cognitive function. In the end, patients loss the independent ability and need the help from other people for their daily life [3]. Although a lot of efforts have been made to ameliorate the clinical symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases, no drugs can be used to stop the neuronal degeneration process so far. Previous studies have shown that cell transplantation is a good strategy to replace the degenerative neuronal cells [4]. It is still challenge to obtain the appropriate cell donors for the cell replacement therapy of neurodegenerative diseases. Recent progress in stem cell biology and techniques allows scientists to use stem cell-derived neurons for the cell replacement therapy of neurodegenerative diseases.