Restorative gene therapy approaches to Parkinson's disease.
Perhaps one of the most exciting developments in brain research of the past
decade is the advent of genetic intervention in human neurologic disease.
Although there are a variety of gene transfer approaches, none of which has
been perfected, gene therapy is now science fact and no longer science
fiction.
As technology progresses, some vectors will prove more effective for
certain disease categories than others; it is too early to predict
definitively which vector would be most effective for therapy in
Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders.
Nonetheless, it is likely that within the next year or two a gene therapy
trial will be instituted in human patients with Parkinson's disease.
The potential for an impact on the symptoms and progression of this disease
is significant.
Clinicians may be on the threshold of a new era of intervention for
Parkinson's disease and other neurologic diseases, based on bypassing
traditional but less selective drug-extracellular receptor interactions and
instead focusing on genetic modulation of specific intracellular processes.
The continuing development of small incremental changes of new dopamine
agonists and pharmacologic agents will likely pale in comparison to the
specificity of intracellular genetic manipulation.
PMID: 10093593, UI: 99193553
Med Clin North Am 1999 Mar;83(2):537-48
Freese A
Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=10093593&form=6&db=m
&Dopt=b
janet paterson - 52 now /41 dx /37 onset - almonte/ontario/canada
http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members/janet/index.htm
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