Gateway

Issue date: 3/26/10 Section: News

(Courtesy of MCTCampus.com) [Click to enlarge]

Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center announced during a March 3 press conference that they have made progress towards better treatment for patients of Parkinson's disease.

Though science is far from a cure, Chairman of the UNMC Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience Howard Gendelman said that the results are promising. The vaccine reversed the effects of the crippling disease in mice; however, the most optimistic possibility is that it could halt deterioration in human patients.

Gendelman's team hopes to learn if the vaccine is safe for humans within two years, and if it is, test patients within five years. He said that his previous work on Parkinson's 10 years ago was a path that led to a vaccine that triggers the immune system to help fight the disease.

"We're hoping and hoping against hope - doesn't mean we have results yet," Gendleman said. "But hoping means that if we get the vaccine into people early enough, this is the kind of outcome we could expect to see. Because most of the nerve cells are damaged and not yet destroyed, and we can reverse that damage."

According to the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, more than 1 million people in the United States are estimated to have the disease, with 4 million more worldwide.

As the brain slowly loses neurons that help produce dopamine, the chemical that allows movement, patients become shaky and slow. The effects can take years to set in but are irreversible. One in every 20 people over the age of 80 is estimated to have the disease.

In tests of the vaccine, mice have been induced with Parkinson's by chemical compounds and then injected with the vaccine. Usually, the loss of dopamine triggers the immune system to inadvertently destroy even more neurons, progressing the disease and worsening the condition. The vaccine counteracts this chain reaction, stopping the immune system from seeking out other neurons. While the effects are not reversed, the disease's progress is halted.

"We don't know whether it's going to be able to be reversed," said Lee Mosley, part of Gendelmen's team. "What we're trying to do is just stop where the process is at that time."

He pointed towards pictures of a dark mass of brain cells. As the disease takes hold, the mass grew smaller and less cohesive, but when the vaccine was introduced it came back to nearly full size.

UNeMed, the organization owned by the NU Board of Regents that markets UNMC breakthroughs, has already filed an application for a patent of the vaccine. More Parkinson's research being performed in Houston has been focusing on how normal protein cells in the brain can become toxic and destroy neurons.

While it may take years for the FDA to approve the vaccine, patient screenings will begin next year for possible candidates to be first in line for the vaccine.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools