About Parkinson’s Disease
Research
The realm of research aimed at treating Parkinson’s more effectively and at finding potential cures for this devastating disease is in an exciting phase. Currently, work is in progress to replace and repair cells to be able to produce dopamine. Gene therapy, surgical therapies, and drugs that delay the progression of Parkinson’s disease hold great hope for changing the disability of Parkinson’s disease.
Research Making News
A Vaccine Approach To Treating Parkinson’s Disease
Researchers at the UCSD School of Medicine working with scientists at Elan Pharmaceuticals have reported promising results in mice of a vaccine approach to treating Parkinson’s and similar diseases. These results appear in the June edition of the journal Neuron.
Dr. Eliezer Masliah, Professor of Neurosciences and Pathology at UCSD, and colleagues at UCSD and Elan Pharmaceuticals in San Francisco, vaccinated mice using a combination of the protein that abnormally accumulates in the brains of Parkinson’s (called human alpha-synuclein) and an adjuvant. This approach resulted in the generation of anti-alpha synuclein antibodies in mice that are specially bred by Masliah’s team to simulate Parkinson’s disease, resulting in reduced build-up of abnormal alpha-synuclein. The accumulation of abnormal alpha-synuclein is associated with degeneration of nerve cells and interference with normal inter-cellular communication, leading to Parkinson’s disease and dementia.
The work marks the first time a vaccine for this family of diseases has been found effective in animal studies. Scientists at Elan Pharmaceuticals have been working for the past few years on a vaccine for Alzheimer’s Disease.
The article stresses that the team’s experimental active immunization, while effective in mice, may not be as useful in humans.
While this research could take many years and holds no promise of prevention or cure, the researchers are hopeful that the mouse studies are a step in the right direction.
“This shows the first demonstration of a vaccine for this family
of diseases,” Masliah said.
