Pig brain cells wrapped in seaweed could be implanted into patients’ brains to cure the degenerative condition Huntington’s disease, if trials are approved in the United States.

The treatment, using NeurotrophinCell, has already shown to be “amazingly successful” in lab tests on monkeys, scientists said. Brain cell damage in primates with simulated brain disease was five times less in animals treated with live pig cell transplants than in the control group.

The study at Living Cell Technologies in Auckland, New Zealand, will raise ethical concerns. But scientists believe that the benefits of a cure outweigh the concerns. “Yes, we have created a chimera, but one that is tolerated and beneficial,” said professor Bob Elliott, the LCT medical director.

Huntington’s disease affects one in 100,000 people. Symptoms include uncontrollable twisting movements progressing rapidly to disability, dementia and death. The pig brain cells used in the treatment are not neurons, but come from the choroid plexus, a lining of the brain structure.

Via Scotsman and News Medical Net.