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thanks, Lorraine, I'm learning as it is all new to me..I hope to be a help and be helped as it should afford me more credibility. Dr. Bernie Barber, past prez, is responsible.Ray Rayilyn Brown Board Member AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation [log in to unmask] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sidney Jeffe" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 12:35 PM Subject: Re: Primates with PD treated successfully with ESCs > Just realized that you are now a BD. member of the Az chapter of NPF > .That's great, as that can help make you more effective.You certainly will > be an asset. As a former board member of the Michigan Parkinson's > Foundastion, I realize it helps. > > Congratulations !!! > > Lorraiane Jeffe > > Lorraine jeffe > rayilynlee <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Friday, June 15, 2007 > Cool stem cell development > Parkinson's in primates has been successfully treated using embryonic stem > cells. But that's just one big development. > > Their results mark the first successful stem cell therapy for Parkinson's > in > primates. The big news, however, is not simply that the treatment worked, > but how it worked: by rescuing and rejuvenating, rather than replacing, > diseased cells. "It's a different principle of stem cell action from what > everyone's thinking about," said Richard Sidman, a Harvard Medical School > neuroscientist and co-author of the research. > The study is a landmark, both for treating Parkinson's disease and for > highlighting a new therapeutic approach to stem cells. While most > scientists > are struggling to change stem cells into the types of cells they need -- > neurons, insulin-producing cells, heart cells, etc. -- the new work shows > that stem cells can perform the remarkable task of saving damaged cells. > The findings, which will soon be published in the Proceedings of the > National Academy of Sciences, show that neural stem cells have > "therapeutic > mechanisms other than replacement," said Cesar Borlongan, a Medical > College > of Georgia neurologist. Borlongan said he has observed similar effects > when > using stem cells to treat Parkinson's symptoms in rodents. > The mechanism could provide an alternative to the tricky prospect of > coaxing > stem cells to take on specific functions, a process known as > differentiation, and then meld seamlessly with the brain, Sidman said. > "It's a lot nicer to protect a patient's own cells, because those cells > are > already in the brain and are wired to work the way the brain is supposed > to > work," Sidman said. "If you put in differentiated cells, you have to get > them to connect with the other neurons and make a functional circuitry." > [...] > Sidman, along with Yale University's Eugene Redmond and Evan Snyder of the > Burnham Institute for Medical Research, injected stem cells taken from the > brains of 13-week-old aborted human fetuses into African green monkeys > with > damaged dopamine-producing brain cells. > Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that affects motion and balance. The death > of > so-called dopaminergic neurons has been linked to Parkinson's disease, an > incurable neurodegenerative disorder that affects about one million > Americans. > At the time of the injections, the monkeys couldn't feed themselves or > walk > without assistance, and alternated between periods of absolute stillness > and > uncontrollable tremors. Two months after the treatment, they were able to > walk and eat. The tremors had disappeared. "The behavioral improvement was > very impressive," Langston said. > Four months after the injection, the effects started to wear off. Sidman's > team sacrificed the monkeys and looked into their brains to see what had > happened. They figured the stem cells, which when injected were on their > way > to becoming different types of brain cells but hadn't yet specialized, > would > replace the monkey's own neurons. That's how stem cells are expected to > work. > But far from turning into a mass of brand-new dopamine-producing neurons, > most of the cells clustered around existing neurons, protecting them from > further damage and rejuvenating those that had deteriorated. > This has a long way to go, there still are a lot of unknowns and potential > drawbacks, but the results are pretty impressive. To repeat: Parkinson's > was > successfully treated in primates. That's a high degree of likelihood we'd > get the exact same results in humans. As well as that, these embryonic > stem > cells showed a possible new general mechanism for medical treatments via > rejuvenation. > > The two most commonly cited examples for potential treatment via stem > cells > are Parkinson's and diabetes. We know diabetes can be treated/cured in > humans (believe they'd qualify it as treatment in most cases, but I'm not > sure); we now know Parkinson's likely can too due to these results. > > How is it possible that people can reject federal funding for this science > with these very, very, slow but terrific early developments? It's simply > unbelievable. > > Written by Callandor at 11:21 PM 0 comments Links to this post > > Rayilyn Brown > Board Member AZNPF > Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation > [log in to unmask] > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn