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Parkinson's Gene Therapy Seems to Work Patient: 'If You Didn't Know I Had Parkinson's Disease, You Couldn't Tell' By Daniel DeNoon WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 Parkinson's Gene Boosts Risk 50% Oct. 17, 2006 -- It's been three years since Nathan Klein was the first person to get an experimental gene therapy for Parkinson's disease infused into his brain. "Before the operation, I was a quivering mass of flesh," Klein, 58, tells WebMD. "With my medications, I am like 80% or 90% better. I am at a point right now where if you didn't know I had Parkinson's disease, you couldn't tell." Klein is delighted with the treatment -- even though, as the first patient, he got a much lower dose than did the next 11 patients to be treated. Moreover, none of these 12 patients got the full treatment. As a safety precaution, only one side of their brains was treated. Yet this half-treatment seems to work as well as deep brain stimulation, the best new treatment for Parkinson's disease. And it's safe, reports therapy co-developer Matthew J. During, MD, DSc, of New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Cornell Weill Medical Center. "These results are just from treating one side of the brain; eventually we will treat both," During tells WebMD. "We hope our results will match or exceed those seen with deep brain stimulation. Even if we just match the deep brain stimulation efficacy, gene therapy would be simpler: no hardware, fewer adverse events. And we have data suggesting this protects against disease progression, so that over time you will see an additional benefit." During reported the findings in a presentation to the 36th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held Oct. 14-18 in Atlanta. During and Kaplitt are co-founders of Neurologix Inc., the company that is developing the gene therapy. Page: 1 | 2 | 3 Next: A Pacemaker for the Brain Print Friendly Version ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn