Anyone who has been with us for any time and reads the posted messages on our forum knows that since neurological brain diseases destroy brain tissue there will never be a true "cure" (if by the use of the word "cure" you mean restoring the patient to their "before the disease" condition) unless you find a way to regenerate and reprogram a number of different types of neuron connections.
That said, there may be ways to stop the progression of the diseases and/or to step the progress of the diseases backwards so that the patient's condition can become stable or improve long-term.
The United States by controlling and limiting stem cell centered research is falling behind in providing the research needed. So it appears that any treatment breakthroughs will first come to those with Parkinson's and/or Alzheimer's Diseases since they are the most common and through research conducted elsewhere. Other rarer conditions will just have to wait unless they are able to include these advances in their treatment.
We need to realize that as of now (2007) no brain tissue wasting disease has an available treatment that does anything but block adverse symptoms. There are no medications or treatments that will prevent, slow or modify the ongoing progression of any of these diseases - we cannot even diagnose the different diseases with any degree of certaincy.
I've just returned from a visit to my 80-year-old father, who lives in the Catskill Mountains in New York. He was a philosophy professor who retired from a distinguished career, teaching at prestigious universities nationwide. Most who know him, who may have also seen him acting onstage, or heard him sing in his pure, tenor voice, speak first to his brilliant mind, but I most honor his great heart. He is the most honest, kindest and gentlest man I have ever known. Dad is now in the final stages of Parkinson's disease. His world is limited to one floor of his house, where he is lifted and moved from chair to chair, to bed, and back again. His days see an endless succession of pills, which the disease makes difficult to swallow.
He's often alert, if confused or at a loss for words that he sometimes invents. He still shows frequent flashes of that exceptional wit. And when he's "on" and his eyes can stand the light, he occasionally gets out to the deck that overlooks a wooded valley he used to roam.
Sadly, he's also "off" much of the time. We would sit with him as he stared into space with lifeless eyes, slack-jawed or grimacing, and try to calm his tremors. He'd nod when I asked if he wanted me to read him jokes or poetry, or play and sing softly to him. He was aware, laughing despite the pain or mustering himself to applaud after a poem or a song. But this tells me that he was also keenly aware of his profound discomfort.
Dad gets scared these days, mostly at night. We'd try to reassure him that he was safe, that enemy soldiers weren't breaking into his home. At times I would kiss him good night and sit up with him until he trembled his way to sleep. And at least twice a day I'd try to hide my tears, not wanting to add to his misery.
We're very fortunate in some ways. He has financial means, an extraordinarily devoted wife, caregivers who are constant and superb, and the affection of many service providers who travel miles to see him. Still, fortune is a fleeting and relative thing. I believe I've seen my father for the last time now, and though I dread the call that must one day come, I hope the grave will claim him before the nursing home does.
I write this, not to share our grief - private, though at the same time shared by all too many - but to plead for stem cell research funding. It's too late for my father, but not for millions of others, and we must use every means to fight this insidious disease. Parkinson's is a scourge that's cutting a path through our people like a scythe through wheat. It is an enemy to whom we should give no quarter.
While acknowledging the misgivings of many well-meaning people, I would respond that God has given us the minds, the means and the methods to move ahead. If we purport to be an enlightened society, surely we can reach a consensus. The claim that stem cell research will lead to more abortions is ludicrous, and we would forgo this direction at our humanity's peril.
Something has to be done. To anyone who reads this, I ask you in the name of God to do something. If you're a politician or a scientist, do something about it. If you're in a position to get the word out, get it out. If you're a voter, a charitable soul, a suffering loved one, or - heaven forbid - a future victim yourself, do something. Get information, contact your representatives, and let it be known that you care. Let's move ahead, fight the good fight, and work for the day, and may it be soon, that we can lay this foe to rest and call it a fight well won.
April 04, 2006 - Parkinson's Disease is not going to be cured by this research, but it is possible for many of the motor deficits of the patient to be ameliorated and even the disease reverted to previous states.
Parkinson's involves a degeneration of a group of cells for which the ideal treatment, from a conceptual viewpoint, would be to replace the lost cells. The big problem is to have at hand a sufficient quantity of cells with a capacity to survive over a prolonged period in the brain where they are implanted and, moreover, where they have to incorporate themselves into the damaged cerebral circuits in order to recover the lost cells.
At the University Hospital of the University of Navarra an experimental line of research is being undertaken, based on the identification and characterisation of adult stem cells with capacity to transform themselves into neurones and incorporate them into the brain.
Two types of cells are currently being tested, one type consisting of adult stem cells from bone marrow. The objective is to obtain dopaminergic neurones from bone marrow adult stem cells. The next step consists of testing to see if these neurones, once implanted in the brain, are capable of ameliorating the symptoms of Parkinson's developed by test animals and then subsequently test their usefulness in patients with the disease.
The second source of donor cells is from a cell culture grown from the carotid body. The various types of cells in the carotid body are being grown and isolated in order to produce cells that have the potential to transform themselves into mature nerve cells in large quantities and thus guarantee a motor benefit.
There is laboratory data that indicates that the carotid body has a cell population that expresses some characteristic of the immature neural cells, which can convert it into a self-supplying source of donor cells. This treatment option would have the advantage that each individual could be its own donor. The next step is to know if these cells grown in the animal carotid body exist in the human carotid body. If the same types of cells are characterised and there is a positive response in the test animals, this type of treatment can be carried out with humans.
Research lines into cell therapy are not attempting to cure Parkinson's disease, given that it is a more extensive process than the simple degeneration of the black matter in the dopaminergic neurones. The disease is not going to be cured by this research, but it is possible for many of the motor deficits of the patient to be ameliorated and even the disease reverted to previous states. The aim is to improve the patients and, until we know what causes the disease, we will not be able to cure it.
Once President Bush makes a decision, he doesn't like to look back.
But the time has come for Bush to revisit the policy he set in 2001 on stem cell research. The basis for it has disappeared.
Embryonic stem cells are the smallest component of life, tinier than the head of a pin. They hold the promise of one day regenerating damaged organs and treating diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes. But research on them is controversial because to extract the cells, scientists must destroy the days-old human embryo.
Creating embryos only to harvest their stem cells is a moral anathema to Bush, who told an anti-abortion rally in Washington on Monday that he's dedicated to promoting a "culture of life."
For that reason, he limited federal research funding to 60 stem cell colonies, or "lines," in existence when he announced his policy 3½ years ago. Only 22 such lines are now available, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and federal funds cannot be used to study lines that might be developed privately or by states.
Researchers have long worried that the government's lines are tainted by animal products, such as mouse and calf cells, used to help them grow in the laboratory. A study published Sunday in Nature Medicine confirmed that the lines are compromised and may be useless or even dangerous in treating disease in humans.
In light of the new study and other developments since 2001, Bush should ease the restrictions. The United States is in danger of falling behind other nations more willing to invest in the future, or at least not stand in its way. America's best scientists and institutions often depend on federal funding and are hamstrung by the lack of usable cell lines.
Private groups, universities and states aren't bound by the federal restrictions and are picking up the slack. In November, California voters overwhelmingly approved spending $3 billion during the next 10 years to fund stem cell research. (In contrast, the NIH spent only $25 million last year.) New Jersey, Wisconsin and Illinois are also budgeting tax dollars to promote the work. The Harvard Stem Cell Institute opened last April with 17 new lines. Researchers will have free access to them — unless they also accept federal funding.
These actions mean vital research can continue, but not as vigorously as it could with full federal participation.
The moral objections raised by Bush are serious. But the ethical dilemma of having to create embryos for the sole purpose of destroying them needn't be insurmountable. More than 400,000 embryos developed at fertility clinics are now frozen and will likely be discarded. Federally funded scientists could work with them if the policy were changed. That's the course 264 members of Congress, including prominent opponents of abortion, urged Bush to take last spring.
No one is predicting imminent cures based on stem cell research. Indeed, the research didn't even start until 1998. But it's impossible to predict when a breakthrough could occur. The federal government shouldn't impede America's scientists from searching for cures. Blocking medical progress doesn't promote the "culture of life" Bush endorses.
November 15 2007 — Researchers have successfully used a peptide to reverse biochemical, cellular and anatomical changes that occur in the brains of mice with Parkinson's disease (PD), and report success in preventing disease from progression.
"This could be a new approach to halt disease progression in PD patients," said study author Kali Pahan, Ph.D., professor of neurological sciences at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Pahan and colleagues from Rush, along with researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, and Yale University, New Haven, published these findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, November 13, 2007.
The authors have shown that one perotein, NF-kB, is increased in the midbrain of PD patients and mice with PD pathology, and the researchers used a novel peptide (small proteins) to block this protein in mice with PD-like symptoms.
Pahan explained that after intraperitoneal injection (injection into the abdomen of the mouse) this peptide enters into the brain and blocks proteiNF-kB and other associated toxic molecules, and goes on to protects neurons, normalizes neurotransmitter levels, and improves motor functions in mice with PD. Peptides, proteins and certain drugs usually do not enter into the brain after crossing the blood-brain barrier. Therefore, at present, peptides, proteins or genes are injected into the brain which is risky and painful. "To overcome this problem, we have added a tag in front of that peptide that is helping the peptide enter into the brain. Therefore, there is no need to inject these peptides into the brain. This is an important discovery.
Understanding how the disease works is important to developing effective drugs that protect the brain and stop the progression of PD," Pahan said. "Now we need to translate this finding to the clinic and test this peptide in patients with PD. If these results can be replicated in PD patients, it would be a remarkable advance in the treatment of this devastating neurodegenerative disease."
Parkinson's is a slowly progressive disease that affects a small area of sales within the mid-brain known as the substantia nigra. Gradual degeneration of these cells causes a reduction in a vital chemical neurotransmitter, dopamine. The decrease in dopamine results in one or more of the classic signs of Parkinson's disease that includes: resting tremor on one side of the body; generalized slowness of movement; stiffness of limbs; and gait or balance problems. The cause of the disease is unknown. Both environmental and genetic causes of disease have been postulated.
Parkinson's disease affects about 1.2 million patients in the United States and Canada. Although 15 percent of patients are diagnosed before age 50, it is generally considered a disease that targets older adults, affecting one of every 100 persons over the age of 60. This disease appears to be slightly more common in men than women.