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Cocktail Approach May
Combat Parkinson's Disease
A multipronged attack will probably be the solution to halting the crippling effects of Parkinson's disease, a University of Cincinnati researcher says.
"I suspect in the end it will not be one substance. It will be a cocktail of medications and procedures that will allow us to delay the progression of Parkinson's disease or prevent its onset," says Dr. Fredy J. Revilla, a neurologist and director of Parkinson's disease and movement disorders treatment and research at UC.
Revilla thinks that Parkinson's will be controlled with a combination of medication, cell transplantation and electrical stimulation of brain cells.
Attack from all sides
UC researchers are looking at several avenues for treating and preventing Parkinson's, a progressive motor system disorder caused by the loss of dopamine-producing cells in the brain.
Hallmarks of Parkinson's include tremors; rigidity of the limbs and trunk; slowness of movement; and impaired coordination. Significant muscle weakness and difficulty breathing and swallowing can result.
Pope John Paul II, who died Saturday at 84, suffered from Parkinson's disease. The pontiff needed a breathing tube because of complications from Parkinson's coupled with influenza.
Dr. Kim Seroogy, a UC neuroscientist, is studying growth factors that might preserve and repair damage to the cells that make dopamine.
Regaining control
"We hope to slow down or stop the death of those cells and promote functional recovery," Seroogy says.
Seroogy received a $250,000, two-year grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation to study two proteins.
The proteins could allow Parkinson's patients to take lower levels of medications like levodopa, which the body converts into dopamine, while healing the cells that naturally produce dopamine. At higher doses, levodopa causes dyskinesia, or uncontrolled movement.
Studies are also under way at UC on drugs and procedures to control the progression of Parkinson's.
Parkinson's Disease | Today's News
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