Word: parkinson
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...first place to look for causes of and treatments for Parkinson's disease is in the brains of patients. As the illness worsens, brain tissue becomes clogged with a protein muck that includes a substance called alpha-synuclein. No one knows exactly what alpha-synuclein does, but it's believed to play a role in the smooth transmission of nerve signals. When the substance clumps, it can't do the work it was designed to do, leading to neuron damage, loss of the neurotransmitter dopamine and eventually the familiar shakiness of such well-known Parkinson's sufferers as Janet Reno...
...hunt for a Parkinson's cure got a boost in 1997 when researchers discovered a handful of patients whose alpha-synuclein genes had mutated. This might seem like open-and-shut evidence that the cause of the illness had been found, except that the vast majority of Parkinson's patients, whose brains also grow gummed up, do not carry the mutation. Still, scientists believe that the bad gene is a powerful clue. "There appear to be more clumps in the brains of people with the mutant gene," says Zigmond. "Learning how the protein functions may help us develop drugs that...
Another gene, newly dubbed the parkin gene, has also been getting a lot of attention. In 1998 Japanese researchers reported on studies conducted on five young patients with early-onset Parkinson's, all of whom carried a recessive gene that appeared to be associated with the disease. Though relatively rare, the parkin gene is much more common than the defective alpha-synuclein gene, and in places like China, with high rates of early-onset Parkinson's, it may play a role in a significant number of cases. Just last October, researchers at Duke University Medical Center went a step further...
Just as important as protecting healthy neurons is repairing or replacing nerve cells that have been damaged. The body produces a whole bath of trophic--or growth--factors that help cells develop. If the brains of Parkinson's patients could be fortified with additional trophic doses, many scientists believe, damaged neurons might be reawakened or repaired. While there is some thought in the medical community about engineering genes to churn out the substances, the pharmaceutical industry is taking a more direct approach...
Whether such an anti-Parkinson's potion is really so close at hand is unclear, but scientists are not waiting to find out. Other possible treatments under study include boosting antioxidants, which would protect brain cells from free radicals, highly reactive molecules that are by-products of oxidation; and blocking the body's production of compounds called excitatory amino acids, which can cause neuron damage. It's hard to say which, if any, of these treatments will succeed, but with science closing in from so many directions, it's possible that for the first time, Parkinson's disease may find...