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conferenceseries
.com
Volume 8
Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Dementia Congress 2018
September 17-18, 2018
September 17-18, 2018 Singapore
12
th
World Congress on
Advances and Innovations in Dementia
Thomas Duncan, J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 2018, Volume 8
DOI: 10.4172/2161-0460-C5-048
Autologous neural cell therapy reverses a dementia syndrome in older pet dogs
Thomas Duncan
University of Sydney, Australia
D
ementia currently affects 50 million individuals worldwide, with projections of 130 million by the year 2050. Due to
limited progress in medical management dementia remains an incurable and fatal disorder. The underlying clinic-
pathologic issue in early Alzheimer’s dementia is mass neuronal loss in the hippocampus. Repopulation by exogenous neural
precursors is a promising therapeutic strategy but has yet to reach clinical trial. One of the major challenges has been poor
translational fidelity between rodents and humans. We have therefore focused on Canine Cognitive Dysfunction (CCD), a
neurodegenerative disorder in older pet dogs with many parallels to human Alzheimer’s and dementia. Dogs with CCD display
amnesia, spatial disorientation and agitation and express neurodegeneration alongside Alzheimer pathology. To date, we have
produced >50 genetically non-modified neural precursor cell lines from adult canine skin, termed SKNs. These are highly
homogenous in culture, rate-limited by virtue of low number of maximal cell doublings and differentiate almost exclusively
into neurons, endogenously up-regulating neuronal specification genes. We show that canine SKN transplantation into the
aged rodent hippocampus is safe and leads to widespread neuronal engraftment. Donor cells become electro-physiologically
active and integrate synaptically into host neuronal circuitry. Moreover, we observe rescue of hippocampal-dependent place
recognition memory deficits, with exploration ratio restored to levels equivalent with young rats. Accordingly, we are now
assessing the safety and efficacy of our SKN therapy in a world-first therapeutic trial to treat dementia in a higher-order animal
model. We can report that 18-months following MRI-guided intra-hippocampal injection of autogenic SKNs, two consecutive
patients demonstrate stable and clinically meaningful improvement in CCD signs, such that they are functionally cured. These
results are paralleled by dramatic improvements on objective spatial memory testing. These exciting early trial results indicate
that SKN therapy can, in-principle reverse a naturalistic dementia-like syndrome.
Biography
Thomas Duncan is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Sydney, Australia. His background is in histology, cell biology and regenerative medicine. At the
University of Sydney, he manages Australia’s first Canine Brain Bank and leads research into the neuropathology of canine dementia and the development of an
autologous cell therapy for human Alzheimer’s disease. He is a Lecturer at the University of Sydney of Neuroscience, Regenerative Medicine and Human Anatomy
and Histology.
thomas.duncan@sydney.edu.au