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http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9702/06/nfm/parkinsons.disease/index.html
For others, here's the text of the story:
Researchers find promising
therapy for Parkinson's
February 6, 1997
Web posted at: 10:30 p.m. EST
In this story:
Therapy may also work on
other diseases
Years before it can be tried
on humans
Related stories and sites
(CNN) -- The trembling hands and shuffling feet
of people with Parkinson's disease are the result
of a communications breakdown in the brain.
The problem is that brain cells die, depriving
the body of a chemical called dopamine that is
critical for delivering messages from one nerve
cell to the next.
Why they die is a mystery, but
researchers say they have used
gene therapy in rats to protect
nerve cells that make the
crucial chemical.
A University of Rochester team
used a modified version of the
common cold virus
to introduce into rats' brains a gene that
produces a protein messenger that protects cells
that make dopamine.
The experiments, which are reported in Friday's
edition of the journal Science, is not a cure for
the disease. But, as Rochester neurobiologist
Martha Bohn puts it, "It's an excellent first
step.
Therapy may also work
on other diseases
"Ultimately," she said, "we may
be able to develop this approach
for human disease. Not only
Parkinson's disease, but other
neuro-degenerative diseases."
Bohn is now working on other ways to deliver the
gene, and will also test the approach on monkeys,
who provide a better model of Parkinson's.
Parkinson's targets a tiny area deep in the brain
stem, where nerve cells produce dopamine.
Using a gene that produces a
potent chemical called GDNF,
researchers injected it into
the damaged brains cells of
rats. The damaged cells
began producing GDNF, which
nerve cells need to stay
healthy and to produce
dopamine.
Given this treatment, rats with a condition like
Parkinson's lived significantly longer than those
that did not.
"We are putting in less than a billionth of an
ounce of GDNF protein into the injection site,"
Bohn said, "so it's a fairly non-invasive
procedure. Very low levels of this protein in a
very focused area of the brain, and we still get
very remarkable effects."
Years before it can be tried on humans
Bohn said it will be years before researchers
will be able to try such therapy on humans, but
that in time it could offer a major advance.
Current treatments stave off the symptoms of
Parkinson's, but don't prevent the destruction of
dopamine cells.
"The exciting part of this finding," she said,
"is that we know you can put the gene into the
right part of the brain and get GDNF secreted
continuously at low levels," she said.
"So if we can develop this approach to slow down
the death of these nerve cells, then we will have
made a milestone step."
Correspondent Andrew Holtz and Reuters
contributed to this report.
Related story:
Gene therapy no quick fix - September 13,
1996
Related sites:
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The Parkinson's Digest
The Parkinson's Web
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