An article appeared in the Sunday Star Tribune in Minneapolis.
Pesticide found to produce Parkinson's symptoms in rats
New York Times
Source:
http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=82863351
NEW ORLEANS -- An organic pesticide widely used on home-grown fruits and
vegetables and to kill unwanted fish in the nation's lakes and rivers
produces all the classic symptoms of Parkinson's disease in rats that
receive steady amounts of the chemical in their bloodstreams, scientists
said Saturday.
While it is much too soon to say that the pesticide, rotenone, causes or
contributes to Parkinson's disease in humans, scientists said the finding
was the best evidence thus far that chemicals in the environment might be
factors in the devastating disease.
Their study, the first to implicate rotenone in Parkinson's, was described
Saturday at a workshop on the neurobiology of disease. The workshop involved
the research of Dr. Timothy Greenamyre and his colleagues at Emory
University in Atlanta.
Dr. John Trojanowski, the workshop moderator and an expert on
neurodegenerative diseases at the University of Pennsylvania School of
Medicine in Philadelphia, said the findings amounted to "a major
breakthrough" in Parkinson's research.
Rotenone is extracted from the dried roots, seeds and leaves of various
tropical plants that produce the compound to ward off insects and other pests.
Rotenone occurs in 680 compounds marketed as organic garden pesticides and
flea powders, said Dr. Caroline Tanner, director of clinical research at the
Parkinson's Institute. It often is dusted onto roses, tomatoes, pears,
apples and African violets and even on household pets.
Because rotenone is naturally occurring, it is advertised as being safer
than synthetic pesticides, she said.
Rotenone is also widely used in liquid form by fishery managers to destroy
pest species. The chemical is added to lakes and reservoirs, where it kills
fish by inhibiting their ability to use oxygen.
Parkinson's disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases,
affecting nearly 1million Americans over 50. Patients develop jerky,
tremulous movements that get worse with time. Eventually, they become
entirely rigid.
In the study, rats were given a steady, low dose of rotenone directly into
their bloodstreams for one to five weeks, Greenamyre said. During the
exposure, the rats grew stiff and slow moving, hunched over and developed
tremors -- just the kinds of problems that develop in Parkinson's.
© Copyright 2000 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
[log in to unmask]
Search the parkinsn archive online at:
http://james.parkinsons.org.uk
Catch the Parkinsn's List Online messages at:
http://parkinsons-information-exchange-network-online.com
Click the link for Parkinsn's List Online
John Cottingham
