> > Chase decided to try amantadine because the drug was recently found to contain
> > properties that blocked the receptors.
>
> Well , well , this seems to come in support to my proposed "blockade hypothesis"
> causing parkison symptoms instead of just and only the believed insufficiency or
> lack of dopamine .
>
> --
> +----| Joao Paulo de Carvalho |------ +
Hi Joao
This is from the latest of J. Bruman's excellent CSR ( June ) . I
could not help thinking of your blockade theory ,which I dont
understand properly . But this CSR entry supports the idea of there
being a problem in the transport rather than the production of
dopamine . I first came accross this idea in our discussions . The
conventional view does little to explain why my left side of my body
has PD symptoms while the right side does not .
Uhl G; Ann Neur 1998;43:555-560:
Dopamine is produced and used by neurons in several parts of the
brain, but the loss of neurons in PD is highly selective. By the
time overt motor symptoms appear, the part of the substantia
nigra that connects to the putamen and caudate nuclei has lost
about 80% of its neurons. The ventral tegmental area of the
midbrain that innervates the cortex and limbic forebrain (higher
mental sites) has lost 40% to 60%. While the arcuate nucleus of
the hypothalamus, which controls endocrine secretions of the
pituitary, has lost none at all. The mystery of this selectivity
may hold a key to understanding, and possibly curing, PD. He
thinks it is the dopamine transporters, chemicals which carry
dopamine to its various application sites, and whose local
concentration correlates with the degree of neuron loss.
peace
Alastair ( [log in to unmask] )
