 |
 |
Raj - The info that the NIH gave Gail is a bit sketchy, but I can think of a couple of reasons it could seem plausible: 1. I've been looking very hard at GDNF therapy, as my mom (age 68, dx 42) has been asked to think about trying it. GDNF is a protein that is produced by the human body, but that can be manufactured by a special "designer" strain of bacteria then injected into the brain. In the research I've read, GDNF reactivates dormant dopamine-producing cells -- at least in monkeys. This seems to be true in monkeys that have "old age" parkinsonism as well as monkeys with MPTP-induced parkinsonism. The researchers were able to VERY significantly reverse the parkinsonism in both of these groups via GDNF, so it seems that even with severe parkinsonism there may be enough cells still around to make a huge difference. (You may also have seen the recent British study using humans -- though that's very preliminary.) The researchers I've talked to are also talking about using a virus to implant a GDNF- making gene into cells in the human brain, so this may be what the NIH was talking about, rather than a dopamine-producing gene. 2. If the NIH WAS talking about a dopamine-producing gene, then it seems possible to me that ANY living cell could be programmed to make dopamine if it had the right gene in the right state (i.e. active), so even if the original dopamine cells were dead, other cells in the brain might be turned into dopamine-makers. Of course, I'm just a layman. Any experts out there want to comment? FWIW - Doug > Date: Wed, 22 May 2002 18:20:06 -0300 > From: Brightline <[log in to unmask]> > Hi! Gail: <snip> > According to some studies (Australian?), the cells not > only do not produce dopamine, but they also seem to die andare not there! > I suppose one can injected the whole cell with implanted > dopamine producing genes. >> From: "Gail Vass" <[log in to unmask]> >> To: <[log in to unmask]> <snip> >> Yesterday the leading researchers said that they were using the >> "HIV virus delivery system". They remove the "bad stuff" from the >> HIV virus, inject the gene into the virus and then inject that into the >> Parkie to deliver the gene therapy ... that will get the dopamine >> producing cells that recently shut down to produce the needed >> dopamine again. <snip> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn