ABSTRACT
Introduction: The available therapeutic strategies for Parkinson’s disease (PD) rely only on the amelioration of the symptomatology of the disease, lacking neuroprotection or neuroregeneration capacities. Therefore, the development of disease modifying strategies is extremely important for the management of PD in the long term.
Areas covered: In this review, the authors provide an overview of the current therapeutic approaches for PD and the emerging use of stem cell transplantation as an alternative. Particularly, the use of the secretome from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), as well as some methodologies used for the modulation of their paracrine signaling, will be discussed. Indeed, there is a growing body of literature highlighting the use of paracrine factors and vesicles secreted from different cell populations, for this purpose.
Expert opinion: Secretome from MSCs has shown its potential as a therapy for PD. Nevertheless, in the coming years, research should focus in several key aspects to enable the translation of this strategy from the bench to the bedside.
Article highlights
The available therapeutic strategies for Parkinson’s disease do not impact disease progression, imposing the need for innovative therapeutic approaches.
The use of stem cells has emerged as a promising approach for regenerative medicine.
Cell sources such as embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, neural stem cells, or mesenchymal stem cells are some of the most promising to replacement strategies.
The secretome of some cell populations is now accepted as their main therapeutic action.
The secretome can be modulated at intracellular and extracellular levels with the purpose to potentiate its benefits.
The potential of the secretome in Parkinson’s disease encourages the development of cell-free products over cell transplantation strategies.
This box summarizes key points contained in the article.
Declaration of interest
The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
Reviewer disclosures
Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial relationships or otherwise to disclose.