At the Bedside: Parkinson’s patient sets out to travel the world after treatment at UTHealth Houston

At the Bedside: Parkinson's patient sets out to travel the world after treatment at UTHealth Houston

Updated: April 18, 2024

After getting treatment for her Parkinson's disease from UTHealth Houston, Sophia Agnihotri is back to traveling the world. (Photo courtesy of Sophia Agnihotri)Sophia Agnihotri, her husband Raj, and their son Rohan enjoy traveling. Sophia was treated for Parkinson's disease at UTHealth Houston, where she entered a clinical trial. (Photo courtesy of Sophia Agnihotri)

In 2018, Sophia Agnihotri was busy selling homes in Houston as a real estate agent, hosting dinner parties for family and friends, and traveling the world as much as she could when she started experiencing uncontrollable twitching and extreme fatigue.

"I had slowed down considerably," Sophia said. "It was my doctor friend, who hadn't seen me for about a year and a half, who came over for dinner and said, 'Something's up, you need to go see someone.' She referred me to a neurologist."

After receiving an official diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in March 2019, Sophia, 58 years old at the time, was devastated. Shewas referred to Mya C. Schiess, MD, professor in the Department of Neurology and director and founder of the Movement Disorders and Neurodegenerative Diseases program with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston.

According to the Parkinson's Foundation, approximately 90,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease each year. To help researchers find a cure for the neurodegenerative disorder, Schiess began researching whether mesenchymal adult stem cells could reduce or even halt the progression of Parkinson's disease. After a Phase I trial's initial results revealed safety and improvement for some patients, Scheiss began a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled Phase II clinical trial.Sophia was one of 45 participants.

"Sophia is still relatively young and healthy, and she embraced a really good lifestyle throughout the trial," Schiess said. "The interaction she had with our whole clinical trial team was very positive. She has been doing really well."

During the trial, participants received three infusions of either placebo or stem cell therapy at four-month intervals and were followed for another year after their last infusion. Sophia, who does not know if she received the stem cell therapy, continued her boxing classes and working out regularly, which has been shown to help reduce symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

"Throughout the clinical trial, we stressed to all the participants the importance of a neuroprotective lifestyle, which means very aggressively talking to them about the fact that exercise is so important for anybody with a neurodegenerative disease," Schiess said. "It's been proven over and over again in Parkinson's disease that exercise and physical activity will attenuate motor symptomatology. Sophia embraced that idea."

"Dr. Schiess has changed my life," Sophia said. "I started to fight back and I became stronger. I know I'm not back to my previous old self, but I certainly feel like I have a second chance at life, and I'm living again. I am excited to start seeing the world again and traveling with my husband."

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