Word: parkinsonism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...hard to imagine asking a doctor to destroy a part of your brain. For the 1.5 million Americans suffering from Parkinson’s disease, however, such a drastic measure-in which an electrode is used to kill tremor-causing neurons-may occasionally be necessary...
...irreversible procedure is just one of many therapies, both surgical and pharmacological, Parkinson’s patients have tried over the years to control the tremors, rigidity and other symptons that characterize the disease. All of the treatments offer some relief, but none can remotely be called a cure. Now that may be changing. The deeper scientists peer into the human genome, the more they’re uncovering the secrets of Parkinson’s-and the more they’re growing convinced that next-generation drugs may be at last be able to beat back the disease. What’s more...
...first place to look for causes and treatments of Parkinson’s disease is in the brains of patients themselves. 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 to the familiar shakiness of such well-known Parkinson...
...hunt for a Parkinson’s cure got a boost in 1997, when researchers discovered a tiny population of patients who have a mutant gene that codes for alpha-synuclein. 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 are convinced 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...
Another gene, newly dubbed the parkin gene, has also been getting a lot of attention. In 1998, Japanese researchers were studying a young patient with early-onset Parkinson’s and found 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 up to 20% of cases. Just last October, researchers at Duke University went a step further, discovering a previously unseen mutation...