thanks,  Lorraine, I'm learning as it is all new to me..I hope to be a help
and be helped as it should afford me more credibility.  Dr. Bernie Barber,
past prez, is responsible.Ray
Rayilyn Brown
Board Member AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sidney Jeffe" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 12:35 PM
Subject: Re: Primates with PD treated successfully with ESCs


> Just realized  that you are now a BD. member of the Az chapter of NPF
> .That's great, as that can help make you more effective.You certainly will
> be an asset. As a former board member of the Michigan Parkinson's
> Foundastion, I realize it helps.
>
>  Congratulations !!!
>
>  Lorraiane Jeffe
>
>  Lorraine jeffe
>  rayilynlee <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>  Friday, June 15, 2007
> Cool stem cell development
> Parkinson's in primates has been successfully treated using embryonic stem
> cells. But that's just one big development.
>
> Their results mark the first successful stem cell therapy for Parkinson's
> in
> primates. The big news, however, is not simply that the treatment worked,
> but how it worked: by rescuing and rejuvenating, rather than replacing,
> diseased cells. "It's a different principle of stem cell action from what
> everyone's thinking about," said Richard Sidman, a Harvard Medical School
> neuroscientist and co-author of the research.
> The study is a landmark, both for treating Parkinson's disease and for
> highlighting a new therapeutic approach to stem cells. While most
> scientists
> are struggling to change stem cells into the types of cells they need --
> neurons, insulin-producing cells, heart cells, etc. -- the new work shows
> that stem cells can perform the remarkable task of saving damaged cells.
> The findings, which will soon be published in the Proceedings of the
> National Academy of Sciences, show that neural stem cells have
> "therapeutic
> mechanisms other than replacement," said Cesar Borlongan, a Medical
> College
> of Georgia neurologist. Borlongan said he has observed similar effects
> when
> using stem cells to treat Parkinson's symptoms in rodents.
> The mechanism could provide an alternative to the tricky prospect of
> coaxing
> stem cells to take on specific functions, a process known as
> differentiation, and then meld seamlessly with the brain, Sidman said.
> "It's a lot nicer to protect a patient's own cells, because those cells
> are
> already in the brain and are wired to work the way the brain is supposed
> to
> work," Sidman said. "If you put in differentiated cells, you have to get
> them to connect with the other neurons and make a functional circuitry."
> [...]
> Sidman, along with Yale University's Eugene Redmond and Evan Snyder of the
> Burnham Institute for Medical Research, injected stem cells taken from the
> brains of 13-week-old aborted human fetuses into African green monkeys
> with
> damaged dopamine-producing brain cells.
> Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that affects motion and balance. The death
> of
> so-called dopaminergic neurons has been linked to Parkinson's disease, an
> incurable neurodegenerative disorder that affects about one million
> Americans.
> At the time of the injections, the monkeys couldn't feed themselves or
> walk
> without assistance, and alternated between periods of absolute stillness
> and
> uncontrollable tremors. Two months after the treatment, they were able to
> walk and eat. The tremors had disappeared. "The behavioral improvement was
> very impressive," Langston said.
> Four months after the injection, the effects started to wear off. Sidman's
> team sacrificed the monkeys and looked into their brains to see what had
> happened. They figured the stem cells, which when injected were on their
> way
> to becoming different types of brain cells but hadn't yet specialized,
> would
> replace the monkey's own neurons. That's how stem cells are expected to
> work.
> But far from turning into a mass of brand-new dopamine-producing neurons,
> most of the cells clustered around existing neurons, protecting them from
> further damage and rejuvenating those that had deteriorated.
> This has a long way to go, there still are a lot of unknowns and potential
> drawbacks, but the results are pretty impressive. To repeat: Parkinson's
> was
> successfully treated in primates. That's a high degree of likelihood we'd
> get the exact same results in humans. As well as that, these embryonic
> stem
> cells showed a possible new general mechanism for medical treatments via
> rejuvenation.
>
> The two most commonly cited examples for potential treatment via stem
> cells
> are Parkinson's and diabetes. We know diabetes can be treated/cured in
> humans (believe they'd qualify it as treatment in most cases, but I'm not
> sure); we now know Parkinson's likely can too due to these results.
>
> How is it possible that people can reject federal funding for this science
> with these very, very, slow but terrific early developments? It's simply
> unbelievable.
>
> Written by Callandor at 11:21 PM 0 comments Links to this post
>
> Rayilyn Brown
> Board Member AZNPF
> Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation
> [log in to unmask]
>
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