NTCELL®, choroid plexus cells for treatment of Parkinson's disease

NTCELL® is a neonatal porcine-derived choroid plexus cell product with the potential to treat Parkinson's disease and other neurologic disorders. Animal-derived tissues have to be protected from immune rejection when transplanted into humans. Porcine choroid plexus cells are preferably implanted without the use of immunosuppressive drugs, which are associated with significant morbidity. To protect the cells from immune rejection, they are encapsulated in alginate microcapsules, which permit the inward passage of nutrients and the outward passage of biologic neural proteins and compounds normally secreted by choroid plexus cells. Alginate-encapsulated porcine choroid plexus cells implanted into the brain without immunosuppressive drugs survived rejection for many months in animals. NTCELL has been safely implanted in rats, and non-human primates. Following NTCELL implantation, animals with chemically-induced Parkinson's-like lesions showed improvement of functional neurological motor abnormalities that was associated with histologic changes consistent with amelioration of the lesion.