Parkinson's Cure Breakthrough

I often see research reports highlighting a new possible breakthrough in the search to cure Parkinson’s. Most have been about as productive as the search for the Fountain Of Youth and Loch Ness monster or the cure for the common cold. Billions of dollars spent on PD research and so far nothing. Nothing. My neurologist told me that there is so much new research going on that he expects significant new treatments for PD to be available in the next 10 years. The problem is that he told me that eight years ago. So far nothing.

Back in 1817 the good Dr. Parkinson in his “Essay On The “Shaking Palsy” stated “Although, at present, uninformed as to the precise nature of the disease, still it ought not to be considered as one against which there exists no countervailing remedy. On the contrary, there appears to be sufficient reason for hoping that some remedial process may ere long be discovered, by which, at least, the progress of the disease may be stopped.” It’s been 200 years and we are still uninformed as to the precise nature of the disease, there still is no cure and nothing stops PD’s progression.

Researchers have tried to generate neurons by using stem cells to replace neurons lost in neuron degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s which is caused by the death of dopamine cells in the brain. Neural transplantation involves replacing diseased and dying brain cells with new cells that can grow and multiply. Neural transplantation is considered an area of promise but has had mixed results so far. Some patients have improved, others have seen no improvement, and some have developed more complications. A research team was studying the PTB protein which can activate and deactivate genes in a cell. In order to better understand PTB they combined it with a type of connective tissue known as fibroblast and then silenced the PTB gene. They were surprised to find that after a few weeks there were few fibroblasts but many neurons. They had accidentally found a way to turn fibroblasts into neurons. They then found that when they silenced the PTB gene in other types of cells, including non neuronal cells, they could generate neurons.The new neurons grew normally and performed the functions of regular neurons. 

The published study is “Accidental Discovery Leads To Parkinson’s Disease Cure In Mice”. Lucky mice. I am not optimistic that a cure will be found in my time.