Therapeutic potential of fetal neural grafts in neurodegenerative diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases are a major public health problem since they affect as a mean 1 % of the people in industrialized countries and will progress along with the ageing of the population. For ten years, a major research endeavour aims at developing new therapeutics against these diseases. These new approaches are based either on the substitution of affected neurons by homogous neuroblasts that are able to replace them anatomically and functionally (fetal neural grafts), or on the we of neuroprotective proteins (by gene therapy) that are able to promote natural defenses of neural cells. Clinical results have been obtained with fetal neural transplants over the past decade, in patients with Parkinson's and more recently, Huntington's disease. The neuroprotective approach is under evaluation.