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CEP-1347 And The Survival Of Embryonic Dopaminergic Nerve Cells (Saturday, 06 March 2004) An inhibitor of nerve cell death improves dopaminergic cell survival in culture and after grafting into the striatum of parkinsonian rats. Transplanted embryonic nigral cells ameliorate PD, but the survival of the grafted neurons is poor. Stress-activated protein kinases are cell enzymes the activation of which is critical for naturally occurring neuronal cell death (apoptosis) and possibly for the pathological neuronal cell death of neurodegenerative diseases. CEP-1347 is a small molecule inhibitor of a family of these kinases and revealed neuroprotective action in several in vitro and in vivo models of apoptosis. In this study, CEP-1347, not only increased in vitro survival of rat dopaminergic cells, but improved the long-term survival of transplanted neurons into the striatum of hemiparkinsonian rats after combined treatment of the grafting cell suspension and the host animal with CEP-1347. Thus, treatment with CEP-1347 might be useful to improve the positive outcome of transplantation therapy in PD. In the meantime, a trial of the Parkinson Study Group showed that CEP-1347 was safe and well tolerated in 30 PD patients(Neurology - 2004; 62: 350-2). Boll JB et al - J Neurochem - 2004; 88: 698-707 Reference: Search PubMed For "CEP-1347" http://tinyurl.com/38stm SOURCE: World Parkinsons News http://www.wpda.org/news.html?n=696&m=-1&y=0 * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn