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------------------------------------------------------------------------ GDNF Gene Therapy Protects Dopaminergic Neurons ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WESTPORT, Feb 07 (Reuters) - In rats, glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) gene therapy ameliorates the effect of experimentally induced degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, pointing to a hopeful new approach to treating Parkinson's disease. Dr. Martha Bohn of the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, describes the findings in the journal Science today: "[GDNF] supports growth and survival of dopaminergic (DA) neurons. A replication-defective adenoviral (Ad) vector encoding human GDNF injected near the rat substantia nigra was found to protect DA neurons from the progressive degeneration induced by [a] neurotoxin...injected into the striatum." GDNF-treated rats had roughly a three-fold reduction in neuronal loss compared with untreated rats. "It is not known how closely neurotoxin-induced lesions mimic the state of diseased neurons in humans with Parkinson's' disease," Dr. Bohn notes. "The mechanism of [dopaminergic] neuronal loss in Parkinson's disease is unknown... [however] GDNF gene therapy is likely to protect diseased human neurons, regardless of the mechanism of degeneration involved." Dr. Gene Redmond of Yale comments in University press release: "There has been a great deal of work suggesting that GDNF might be useful in the brain; the critical limiting factor has been the lack of an appropriate long-lasting method of delivery. Packaging GDNF in a viral vector and inserting it directly into brain cells is quite ingenious." Science 1997;275:838-841. Westport Newsroom 203 221 7648 Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. <http://www.reutershealth.com/news/docs/199702/19970207sca.html> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [log in to unmask]