An example of a neurodegenerative disorder that is believed to be caused by free-radicals.  I find the last line of this press release very encouraging since I have some friends who have children with Ataxia-Telangiectasia.  It also gives me hope for other friends with Multiple System Atrophy/Shy-Drager, OPCA, Friedreich's Ataxia and Spinocerebellar ataxia.

Regards,
Pam

>August 17, 1999
>
>Antioxidants May Fight Rare Disease
>
>.c The Associated Press
>
> By LAURAN NEERGAARD
>
>AP Medical Writer
>
>WASHINGTON (AP) - Animal research suggests doctors might look to
>antioxidants to help fight a rare but lethal inherited disease that puts
>most child sufferers in wheelchairs by their teens and kills them by their
>20s.
>
>The new research is only in mice, not in people, but it indicates that a
>buildup of damage from destructive molecules called ``free radicals'' may
>help fuel the deadly disease called ataxia-telangiectasia - pronounced
>Ay-TACK-see-uh Teh-LAN-jick-TAY-sha - and better known as A-T.
>
>The A-T Children's Project, a patient advocacy group that helps fund A-T
>research, considers the finding a strong enough lead that it will gather
>antioxidant experts in November to determine which substances should be
>tested as possible A-T treatments.
>
>``Now we have absolutely no treatment for this brutal disease,'' said
>project director Brad Margus, who has two sons with A-T. The new research
>``gives us impetus to proceed with pursuing the most ... powerful
>antioxidants we can try, first on mice and hopefully on children with the
>disease.''
>
>A-T's first signs are an unsteady gait, slurred speech and poor muscle
>coordination in young children. Eventually, children lose all motor
>control. A-T also weakens their immune systems. Patients usually die in
>their 20s of cancer or infections.
>
>About 500 American children have A-T, which worldwide strikes about one in
>every 40,000 children.
>
>The genetic defect that causes A-T was discovered in 1995, but that
>discovery has not yet led to treatments.
>
>The new research, from California's Salk Institute for Biological Studies,
>suggests the gene defect leaves A-T patients without protection against
>damage from the free radicals that may kill their brain cells.
>
>Everybody experiences this so-called oxidative damage from free radicals,
>byproducts of metabolism that attack cells. Most people's bodies can
>counter and repair oxidative damage, helped by antioxidants like vitamins C
>and E. But sometimes free radicals go out of control, causing or
>contributing to cancer, Alzheimer's and other diseases.
>
>Salk lead researcher Dr. Carrolee Barlow bred mice with the A-T gene defect
>and examined cells from the cerebellum, the brain region that controls
>movement. A-T patients' progressive loss of motor control occurs when vital
>cerebellum cells die.
>
>In this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Barlow
>reports on evidence that suggests the mouse brain cells were killed by free
>radicals.
>
>Some desperate A-T families already have tried over-the-counter
>antioxidants with no apparent effect, scientists note.
>
>``It may be that those compounds just aren't strong enough,'' said Barlow,
>who is testing in mice an experimental antioxidant created by the National
>Cancer Institute.
>
>Other researchers, Margus said, are creating antioxidants that promise to
>be hundreds of times more powerful than Vitamin C.
>
>AP-NY-08-17-99 0215EDT