Thanks, Doug! Glial cells apparently arenurse cells producing factors such as GDNF. There is a recent article in nature (about a couple of weeks ago) that astrocytes can do the same! I see a lot of opportunites to correct the defect, if whe find the right way to do that. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 10:29 AM Subject: Re: First you get PD then HIV..... > 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 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn