Parkinson's TX

Hey Kaaren,



I just read an article in the paper that UF has been working on a new tx for Parkinson's...they are delivering the Glial cell line Derived Neurotrophic Factor into the substantia nigra....any thoughts on this?



Kris

Hi Kris - sorry it's taken me a while to post but I've been on vacation! It's hard to go back... and hard to give up my husband to the call schedule again. But about Parkinson's - I don't know what UF stands for (Univ Florida? they have a big Parkinson's program) but I have heard about the GDNF trials. I had thought they (Amgen) had stopped them because there wasn't much effect but I haven't followed the latest in that area. What did you hear about UF? GDNF may help the substantia nigra cells survive, but it has to be delivered directly to the brain - that is, patients have to live with a cannula in their heads! A serious drawback. I'd love to hear any more details you know of...

Kaaren

Yikes..I read this in the newspaper one morning and thought of you so I posted it with the article in front of me...I will look through some of the stuff over at the Brain Institute on Thursday to get the details for you. I know that the article was very optimistic about this being a great new thing...which left me feeling skeptical!



I didn't know that you were pregnant. How are you feeling? When are you due? Does this have any impact to you at all in terms of the lab?



The summer is winding down and I am busy cramming all of the reading into my head that I should have been doing all along. Would you be willing to be a bit of a sounding board for me about some of the basic techniques and principles as the semester gets going?



Talk to you soon,



Kris

Hi Kaaren. I finally got some of the PD info that I had promised a while back. I am going to just paraphrase out of our "Friday Evening Post"...teh University of Florida Health Science Center Newsletter:



Gene therapy effective in animal studies of Parkinson's disease, researchers show:



An international team of scientists has reversed some of the effects of Parkinson's disease in rats with a drug-induced form of the progressive movement disorder.



By inserting corrective genes into the brain, researchers were able to trigger the regeneration of a critical bundle of nerve fibers. The new growth was linked to significnt-but not complete-recovery of the animals'ability to use their paws spontaneously.....(see Journal of Neruoscience recent article..date not given)



The gene therapy experiments were conducted at Lund University in Lund, Sweden...the researchers inserted copies of a gene to produce GDNF in the brains of laboratory rats.

In separate experimental groups, the corrective genes were placed either in the part of the brain where the dopamine neurons reside (substantia nigra) or in the striatum. In a third group, they were inserted in both areas. The gene copies were carried into the cells using AAV. Four weeks after inserting hte genes, the researhcers induced PD by injectiong a drug to destroy the dopamine cells...the rats that received the tx exclusively in the striatum imporved....signs of recovery from 8 of 11 rats...autopsies later showed that the initially destroyed dopamine fibers had begun to regenerate.....hope to test the therapy in people within the next several years...





What do you think?