Asuka Morizane (Japan)
Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital
Department of Regenerative Medicine, Center for Clinical Research and Innovation
Asuka Morizane is a Director for Department of Regenerative Medicine, Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital. He is focusing on translational research on cell therapy for Parkinson's disease and other neurological disorders. Recently he is working on clinical application of stem cell therapy in clinics. He was a core member of Prof. Jun Takahashi’s team that has started the clinical trial of the cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease with iPSCs since 2018 in Kyoto, Japan, attending the operation of cell injection to the patients. Before the current position, he worked as a junior associate professor in Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University. As a researcher he specializes in neural differentiation from pluripotent stem cells and transplantation in animal models such as rodents and non-human primates. He received his M.D. in 1996 from Tokyo Medical and Dental University, and his Ph.D. in 2004 from Kyoto University.

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 Conference Calendar

PRE-RECORDED: CELL REPLACEMENT THERAPY FOR PARKINSON’S DISEASE WITH IPS CELLS

Session Name
0640 - SINGLE-CELL GENOMICS STEM CELLS 3 (ID 34)
Session Type
SYMPOSIUM
Date
Thu, 17.03.2022
Session Time
09:10 AM - 11:10 AM
Room
ONSITE: 113
Lecture Time
10:55 AM - 11:10 AM
Presenter

Abstract

Abstract Body

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most promising target diseases for cell therapy based on the history of fetal nigral transplantation in clinics. Due to the shortage of donor supply of fetal tissue and ethical problems, fetal nigral transplantation has not been a standard treatment. The technology of pluripotent stem cells such as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and embryonic stem cells (ESCs) offer a limitless donor supply and more advantageous donor source.

After many experiments of non-clinical studies with PD models of mice, rats, and cynomolgus monkeys, several groups have started or are about to start clinical trials.

Kyoto University has started a clinical trial for Parkinson’s disease that transplants dopaminergic progenitors generated from iPSCs since 2018; Kyoto Trial to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of iPSC-derived dopaminergic progenitors in the treatment of Parkinson's Disease (Phase I/II). The study is ongoing without any serious adverse event. In this trial, donor iPSCs from healthy volunteer are used with immune suppression to avoid immune rejection. There are several options to reduce the risk of immune rejection by iPSCs beside the immune suppression for the future; 1) autologous transplantation with patient's own iPSCs, 2) matching human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) between donor and recipient with HLA-homo iPSCs, and 3) HLA-depleted iPSCs by gene-editing so called "universal iPSCs". The advantages and disadvantages of each option will be discussed.

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