Prehistoric Plant Intrigues New York Parkinson's Researchers
 Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The New York Botanical Garden is an oasis of green for
visitors escaping the city's concrete canyons. For scientists, it's a
research center where a prehistoric plant may hold clues to a treatment for
Parkinson's disease.
 Researchers at the Bronx garden's International Plant Science Center, now
aided by a new $23 million laboratory, are assessing the therapeutic
potential of trees, flowers and herbs by exploring their genetic makeup. From
aspirin to Taxol, medicines have been derived from chemical compounds in
plants.
 One of the center's scientists is studying cycads, plants dating to the days
of dinosaurs that may hold the key to the human brain malfunctions that
trigger the tremors, slowness and poor balance associated with Parkinson's,
which afflicts more than 6 million people. Another is investigating a Western
Pacific pepper plant that may yield a nonaddictive alternative to sedatives
such as Valium.
 ``The science at the garden has evolved into genomics and molecular-based
research,'' said William C. Steere Jr., former chief executive officer of New
York-based Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, which helped finance the
center's new lab.
 ``It's a natural extension of the kinds of things that Pfizer has done in
terms of science,'' said Steere, 70, who led a $100 million fund-raising
campaign to expand the science center. Pfizer's Chantix, a drug approved in
May to help people quit smoking, was derived from cytisine, a substance found
in plants in the legume family, including the laburnum tree and the yellow
Scotch Broom flower, he said.
 Genomics, Graduate Studies
 The 115-year-old Botanical Garden, set on 250 acres (100 hectares) in the
northernmost of the city's five boroughs, opened the Pfizer Plant Research
Laboratory in May. The 28,000-square- foot (2,600-square-meter) facility,
which tripled the garden's research capabilities, houses the genomics effort
and serves as the base for the garden's graduate studies program.
 ``We want to know what builds plants,'' said Amy Litt, director of the
genomics program, where researchers map plant DNA to chart the evolutionary
differences between related flora. ``It's entirely possible that we could
come up with something that someone might use.''
 The garden's buildings and grounds are owned by New York City. Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP,
is an ex-officio member of the institution's board.
 Plant Remedies
 ``In the developing world, three out of four people rely on remedies made
directly from plants,'' the garden says on its Web site. ``Where prescription
drugs are the norm, a large percentage of medicines contain at least one
plant-derived compound.''
 Pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies spent a record $51.3
billion on research and investment last year, according to the Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America, a Washington-based industry group.
 While drugmakers typically rely on synthetic substances that allow them to
alter compounds to make treatments safer or more effective, ``plants and
natural sources provide starter materials,'' said Marie Vodicka, senior
director for biologics and biotechnology at the organization.
 New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s Taxol cancer drug was isolated from
the bark of the Pacific yew tree. London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc's ovarian
cancer treatment Hycamtin is made from camptotechin, the extract from the
Chinese camptotheca tree, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved
its use in June for treating cervical cancer.
 At Pfizer, plant-based study is a source of inquiry, although it is a small
part of the company's research, said Steere, who is vice chairman of the
botanical garden's board.
 Herbarium Endowment
 Steere and his wife helped endow the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, the
Western Hemisphere's largest collection of dried plants, which has more than
7 million specimens, according to the garden's Web site. Steere's late
father, botanist William Steere Sr., headed the garden for 14 years.
 Inside the facility, Dennis Stevenson, vice president for laboratory
research, studies cycads and the link between the amino acid BMAA, or
B-methylamino-L-alanine, and neurological disorders including Parkinson's,
Alzheimer's and Lou Gehrig's disease. The cycads are the only plants that
function normally with the compound, which destroys nerve endings.
 BMAA excites neurons by mimicking the effect of glutamate, a chemical
affecting electrical signals between cells. The results are similar to
effects of too little of the substance dopamine, as seen in Parkinson's.
 It's possible that by identifying how the plants are able to function
normally and repair damage done by the chemical, the botanical research may
spur a similar treatment for human conditions, said Stevenson, 63.
 ``If we know what genes control that, one notion is that stem cells could be
used to generate that defense,'' he says.
 Belize, Micronesia
 Another garden scientist, Michael J. Balick, vice president and chairman of
botanical science research, is compiling a survey of therapeutically useful
plants in Belize and Micronesia.
 One promising plant is the kava, a member of the pepper family traditionally
cultivated by Pacific Islanders for use as a social and ceremonial drink. The
plant ``may prove as effective in managing menopausal anxiety and pain as its
pharmaceutical counterparts, like Valium -- but without the addictive side
effects,'' according to the garden's Web site.
 ``A lot of medicine has come out of a plant base,'' Steere said. ``You have
to look at the molecular base of the plant to find that.''


To contact the reporter on this story:
Courtney Dentch in New York at  [log in to unmask]

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