Motor Neuron disease is a neurodegenerative disease of central nervous system leading to death of motor neurons from CNS and spinal cord. Due to the lack of effective treatment modalities, recently, many scientists have considered stem cells as a potential strategy for the treatment of this disease. Amongst the different types of stem cells, MSCs have been thought as a promising source of stem cells in regenerative medicine applications. These cells can be transplanted into the injured nervous system as a new therapeutic strategy. Although many challenges and concerns still remain, and the exact mechanism by which stem cells act is still unknown, the positive effect of stem cells following transplantation has encouraged many researchers to consider this as a treatment option in the future. There has been a lot of research ongoing on the derivation of motor neurons from stem cells in vitro and many scientists are attempting to bring these cells into clinical applications by conducting a number of clinical trials. Here, in this review, we discuss the current progress in pre-clinical studies and the status of clinical trials using stem cells in motor neuron diseases. We also discuss the hurdles which need to be overcome while moving from bench to bedside. Based on current information available, stem cell derived motor neurons can pave the way as a new treatment option for patients with the disease which seems to be highly promising.
Author(s): Prathibha Shetty, Swapnita Pradhan, Chandra Viswanathan