Affiliations: [a] Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea
| [b] Cognitive Science Research Group, Korea Brain Research Institute, Daegu, Republic of Korea
| [c] Brain Research Core Facilities, Korea Brain Research Institute, Daegu, Republic of Korea
| [d] Metabolic Research Laboratories and Medical Research Council Metabolic Diseases Unit, Wellcome Trust - Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Dr. Minjung Song, Metabolic Research Laboratories and Medical Research Council Metabolic Diseases Unit, Wellcome Trust - Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB20QQ, UK. Tel.: +44 7378 786508; E-mail: ms2700@medschl.cam.ac.uk and Dr. Jaewon Lee, Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Republic of Korea. Tel.: +82 51 510 2805; Fax: +82 51 513 6754; E-mail: neuron@pusan.ac.kr.
Note: [1] These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common progressive neurodegenerative disease worldwide, but its cause remains unclear. Although a few drugs can provide temporary and partial relief of symptoms in some patients, no curative treatment is available. Therefore, attention has been focused on research using stem cells to treat AD. Among stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been used to treat the related pathologies in animal models of AD, and other neurodegenerative disease. This review describes latest research trends on the use of MSC-based therapies in AD and its action of mechanism. MSCs have several beneficial effects. They would be specified as the reduction of neuroinflammation, the elimination of amyloid-β, neurofibrillary tangles, and abnormal protein degradation, the promotion of autophagy-associated and blood-brain barrier recoveries, the upregulation of acetylcholine levels, improved cognition, and the recovery of mitochondrial transport. Therefore, this review describes the latest research trends in MSC-based therapy for AD by demonstrating the importance of MSC-based therapy and understanding of its mechanisms in AD and discusses the limitations and perspectives of stem cell therapy in AD.
