Archive for the Parkinson's Disease Resources Category
Michael J Fox appears on Oprah
April 11, 2009 by mike.
Click the article title for link to see summary of the Fox appearance on Oprah. Clip courtesy of “A Current Affair.”
LINK TO VIDEO CLIP
Med Rasagiline (Azilect) May Slow Parkinson’s
February 8, 2009 by mike.
By Rick Nauert, Ph.D.
Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on January 27, 2009
A new study offers tantalizing hope that the drug rasagiline can do what no other medication for Parkinson’s disease does — slow the progression of the devastating degenerative brain disease.
The study investigated the long-term effects of rasagiline (Azilect) on newly diagnosed patients and discovered people who began the drug earlier continued to do better than those for whom treatment was delayed six months.
A research paper, “Long-term Outcome of Early Versus Delayed Rasagiline Treatment in Early Parkinson’s Disease” was recently published in the journal Movement Disorders.
“Patients who received rasagiline right from the beginning rather than after a six-month delay experienced less progression of the clinical signs and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease that interfere with activities of daily living such as eating, walking and dressing,” said the study’s lead author Robert A. Hauser, MD.
“This is potentially consistent with a slowing of underlying disease progression, although other possible mechanisms also need to be considered.”
The study, sponsored by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Israel), Teva Neuroscience, Inc. (USA) and H. Lundbeck A/S (Denmark), was a long-term open label extension of the multisite trial known as TEMPO.
In TEMPO, more than 400 untreated patients with early Parkinson’s disease were randomly assigned to rasagiline for a year (1 mg daily or 2 mg daily) or to placebo for six months followed by rasagiline for six months (2 mg daily).
At the end of a year, patients receiving rasagiline from the start fared better as measured by the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale. They experienced less worsening of motor symptoms, such as rigidity and tremor, and had fewer problems with activities of daily living than patients who began rasagiline six months later.
The open-label extension study followed more than 300 patients from the TEMPO study for up to 6.5 years. In this extension study, all patients continued on rasagiline (1 mg. daily) and could take other Parkinson’s disease medications as needed.
The researchers found those who started rasagiline right from the beginning of the TEMPO study continued to fare better than patients in the delayed-start group. Over the course of the entire study, the early-start group had 16 percent less progression of the signs and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, and this greater clinical benefit was observed even as patients received conventional Parkinson’s disease medications in addition to rasagiline.
Rasagiline appeared to be well tolerated in this long-term study.
If the clinical outcomes from the TEMPO and extension study hold up under further scrutiny, it may indicate that early initiation of rasagiline confers a protective effect against disease progression, Dr. Hauser said.
If this is the case, it reinforces the importance of individuals being diagnosed and treated as soon as possible.”
The study authors point out that early initiation of any drug to relieve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease may lead to a better clinical outcome compared to delayed administration — something that will be elucidated as more delayed-start studies are performed with other Parkinson’s medications.
Source: University of South Florida Health
New Parkinson’s Disease Online Resource Now Available
September 9, 2007 by mike.
Consumers searching for information on Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological condition that affects more than 1.5 million Americans, now have a new online destination. The Parkinson’s Disease Blog Network (http://www.parkinsonsblognetwork.com) is the first site to centralize these individual perspectives, helping consumers to quickly identify the most relevant and useful information for any given situation. Oversight by an advisory board of patients and medical experts ensures content accuracy.
“The Parkinson’s community is highly motivated, frequently turning to the Internet as an outlet for support and information once they or a loved one have been diagnosed,” said Dr. Neal Hermanowicz, a member of the Parkinson’s Disease Blog Network advisory board and professor in the department of neurology and director of the Movement Disorders Program at the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine. “The Parkinson’s Disease Blog Network provides a reliable, centralized online source for those pressed for time or limited by access or ability.”
The Parkinson’s Disease Blog Network was developed and is maintained by Incendia Health Studios, an inVentiv Health company. It has been designed to serve as a real-time, virtual Parkinson’s disease discussion and community forum, allowing users to exchange information and thoughts on topics ranging from symptoms to diet and treatment. All blogs registered on the network are listed with a brief descriptor and assigned to one of three categories: resource, medical or personal. Each includes a space for user comments, a five-point rating scale and also tracks the number of “views”. This allows the blogs found to be the most useful to be most prominently featured.
Kate Kelsall, author of the site’s top-rated blog, Shake, Rattle and Roll, explains, “Many of us with Parkinson’s disease feel isolated and lonely. Even after diagnosis, we are scared of what lies ahead. Connecting online with others who have the same disease can be reassuring. By sharing hopes and providing support for each other, we find commonality and realize we are not alone.”
Support for the development of the Parkinson’s Disease Blog Network was provided by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. To learn more or register your blog, visit http://www.parkinsonsblognetwork.com.
Test drug seen as best hope in decades for tackling Parkinson’s
June 15, 2007 by mike.
http://nationmultimedia.com:80/world…ewsid=30036474
PARIS - A drug tested on lab mice slows and may even halt the progress of Parkinson’s, offering the brightest pharmacological hope in decades of rolling back this tragic disease, US researchers report on Sunday.
Isradipine, already licensed for treatment for high blood pressure, rejuvenated ageing dopamine cells, the brain cells whose death causes Parkinson’s, they say.
The outcome among mice was so promising that the team now plan on conducting trials on human volunteers.
“Our hope is that this drug will protect dopamine neurons, so that if you began taking it early enough, you won’t get Parkinson’s disease, even if you were at risk,” said lead researcher James Surmeier, professor of physiology at Northwestern University in Chicago.
“It would be like taking a baby aspirin every day to protect your heart.”
Parkinson’s is an incurable, degenerative disease of the central nervous system that causes uncontrollable shaking, along with impaired speech and movement. In approximately one third of cases it also results in dementia.
Estimates of its prevalence vary between 0.1 and 0.3 per cent of the population, meaning that approximately one in 500 people contract the disease.
The cause is a loss of dopamine, a chemical messenger that helps direct movement. The substance is provided in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra.
Most pacemaking neurons use sodium ions to produce a regular electrical signal.
But the new research unexpectedly found that dopamine cells, when they reached adulthood, start to depend more and more on calcium ions.
This discovery is important, because calcium ions are far more troublesome to control than their placid sodium counterparts: the cell uses up lots of energy, either to round up and sequester the calcium or pump it out.
As a result, the dopamine cells become stressed on reaching their calcium-addicted adulthood and die prematurely.
Surmeier’s hunch was to try isradipine, a well-tolerated hypertension and stroke drug commercialised under the name of DynaCirc, which blocks the channels in the cell surface that admit calcium.
Tested on lab-dish cells and then on mice which had been genetically engineered to have Parkinson’s, the team found that within a few hours of being exposed to the drug, the neurons reverted to their youth-like state, of using sodium.
This lowered the cells’ stress level, making them less vulnerable to the toxins, still poorly understood, that kills them.
“They start acting like they’re youngsters again,” Northwestern quoted Surmeier as saying.
The study is published online on Sunday by Nature, the British science journal.
So far the work has only been carried out on animals, and more needs to be done to assess the drug’s effect on humans.
But Surmeier voiced cautious hopes it could be the first treatment to prevent or slow the progression of this devastating disease.
The mainstay treatment for Parkinson’s is L-DOPA, a drug that the brain converts into dopamine.
At first, L-DOPA has a seemingly miraculous effective on symptoms. The problem, though, is that it becomes less and less effective as time wears on and the disease progresses. That forces doctors to raise the dose of this drug, which induces unwanted side-effects, including spastic, jerky movements.
So, if isradipine can slow the death of dopamine neurons, the L-DOPA “honeymoon” could be significantly extended.
“If we could double or triple the therapeutic window for L-DOPA, it would be a huge advance,” said Surmeier. “There has not been a major advance in the pharmacological management of Parkinson’s in 30 years.”
Agence France-Presse
Parkinson’s cure possible in next decade: Expert
April 25, 2007 by mike.
Charles Enman
Citizen Special
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Given enough funding, a cure for Parkinson’s disease could be in the hands of physicians within 10 years, a noted researcher says.
“It would take money and researchers are in desperate times financially — but I’m fairly certain we could have a cure within a decade,” said Jackalina Van Kampen, who will deliver a lecture on her research Wednesday at the Civic campus of The Ottawa Hospital.
How much money is needed? Ms. Van Kampen doesn’t have a precise figure, but says “likely not $100 million, but a few tens of millions of dollars.”
That would be good news for the 100,000 Canadians diagnosed with Parkinson’s, the degenerative disorder that causes tremors, rigidity and the gradual loss of mobility. The average age of onset is 60, but many are diagnosed earlier, including Canadian-born actor Michael J. Fox, who was only 30 when told he had the disease.
Ms. Van Kampen, a native of Charlottetown, is an assistant professor of neuroscience at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. Her findings were published in July in a much-noticed article in The Journal of Neuroscience.
Parkinson’s is caused by the degeneration of neurons in a structure of the midbrain called the substantia nigra. Those neurons produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps the brain control movement.
By the time Parkinson’s is diagnosed, there is already extensive damage of those neurons, damage that physicians and researchers always assumed was irreversible.
Working with rats, Ms. Van Kampen has found ways of coaxing dormant neurons to take on the dopamine-producing role of the damaged neurons and to restore the brain’s control of movement.
Scientists have gradually been accepting that many structures in the brain can regenerate themselves. In the hippocampus, which helps create memories, generation of new neurons is part and parcel of the process of memory creation.
“But no one thought regeneration occurred in the substantia nigra,” Ms. Van Kampen says. “Five years ago, they called my idea ‘completely crazy’.”
Throughout the brain, there are undifferentiated cells called progenitor cells that, with the right stimulation, can transform themselves into more specific types of cells. Some of them are in the substantia nigra, and Ms. Van Kampen hoped to find a way to convince those cells to become dopamine neurons. Working with Parkinsonian rats, she found a drug that increased the number of dopamine neurons by 180 per cent.
Sophisticated brain scanning showed that those new dopamine neurons were working well. But the proof of the pudding was the behaviour of the rats: Their movements, which previously showed problems typical of Parkinson’s, were now almost fully restored to normal — what Ms. Van Kampen calls “a functional recovery.”
Rats aren’t people, and finding the equivalent way of coaxing progenitor cells in human brains to appropriately mutate is not a slam-dunk exercise, but Ms. Van Kampen feels sure the task is doable, given enough funding and perhaps a decade of hard research.
Equally important as generating cells to replace damaged neurons is the protection of neurons that are still intact. Ms. Van Kampen has found that ginseng, that most ancient of healing herbs, is very effective. When she treated rats with ginseng and then administered a toxin that would destroy cells in the substantia nigra, she found on post mortem examination that those cells were “almost completely protected.”
Finally, in a finding that will gratify mothers and gym teachers, she’s found that exercise reduces the severity of Parkinson’s.
She put some Parkinsonian rats, normally housed in shoe box-sized cages, into a much larger, three-level ferret cage that amounted to “a giant rat condo,” complete with running wheels and chewing blocks.
“We found that rats in this enriched environment recovered some neurons in the substantia nigra,” she says. “And I guess that speaks to the importance of keeping active, for everyone.”
She also believes that the work she’s doing will have application in treatment of other neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Her main interest, though, is Parkinson’s. Her father developed the disease when she was in her early teens. When she was 14, the leader of a church group for girls asked her to write down her dream of her future. “And I wrote that I would cure Parkinson’s,” she says. “Family history surely set me on a path.”
Exercise may lower risk of Parkinson’s
April 25, 2007 by mike.
Regular exercise could be key to reducing your risk of Parkinson’s disease.
Harvard researchers studied nearly 150,000 people for 10 years and found those who exercised at least half an hour per day had a reduced risk of Parkinson’s.
The research will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting in Boston, April 28 – May 5.
Harvard researchers say they aren’t completely sure it’s the exercise that lowers the risk. But they say considering all the other benefits of exercise, it can’t hurt
‘brain on fire’ Happy birthday Dr Parkinson
April 12, 2007 by mike.
yesterday was the the 252nd birth anniversary of james parkinson,an english physician and surgeon. april 11 is celebrated every year as world parkinson’s day. he was born on 11th april 1755. dr james parkinson wrote “an essay on the shaking palsy”, in which symptoms of this disease were documented which later on came to be known as parkinson’s disease.
parkinson’s is a disease of the nervous system.it is manifested initially by the trembling of one hand followed by the other as soon the disease advances.it is one of the most dreaded diseases associated with old age.in some cases it even strikes those who are aroound 50.this neurological disorder produces muscle movements that are uncontrollable and dramatically reduces bodily motions like walking. the body becomes so stiff that the person cannot walk at all. in the worst case,the upper body inclines to a right angle i.e.90 degrees to the lower body. for some unknown reason women are less afflicted by parkinson’s.
depletion of a critical brain chemical called dopamine has been traced to be the root cause of parkinson’s.certain drugs taken for other ailments can also destroy the dopamine producing cells in the brain leading to what the experts call as simulated parkinson’s. it is pathetic to see some people trying to walk a step or two and then halting. they become as stiff as statues.
but then things are not hopeless.if the person has an intention to walk,the brain can be awakened.on the first attempt, the person may again freeze. but then if another attempt is made, the brain is likely to respond and give the instructions to the leg to move. extending this analogy,using simple mind-body exercises,in a few sessions,a racing heartbeat or asthmatic wheezing or any other physical disorder can be converted into a natural and normal response.
when people become old, they resign themselves to the fact that they have to decline.a strong belief to that effect is instilled in the brain over time.if that can be changed by a positive attitude and by using the power of intention then the brain can be reawakened.what it requires is to constantly programme your mind to remain young. deepak chopra,the well-known health guru, addresses this issue in ‘ageless body,timeless mind’. it is a recommended read.
science is making phenomenal progress with advanced technologies in the world of medicine. a new technique called deep brain stimulation(dbs) has been discovered. it is a revolutionary surgical technique in the war against neurological symptoms that disable human beings.the surgery is a two-step procedure.in the first step an electrode is implanted in the brain. in the second,the wire and pulse generator are implanted below the collarbone. in a period of about three months,the patient recovers significantly; so much so, that the tryst with parkinson’s becomes a forgettable memory.
at mumabi, a yoga programme was conducted at bombay hospital on world parkinson’s day for those afflicted by parkinson’s. many claim that the debilitating symptoms associated with parkinson’s disappear with daily doses of yoga. bks iyengar,the internationally known yoga guru,highlighted the power of yoga. many persons with bent shoulders,poor gait and drool have managed to gain control over their movements, according to a doctor of iyengar yogashraya. one cannot underestimate the influence of mind over body. it plays a very dominant role. while the relief and cure that allopathic medicines provide is substantial, mental and yogic exercises done concurrently can do immense good for the body and soul.
sage patanjali,the propounder of yogashastra,about 2500 years ago, in his yoga sutras(aphorisms) says,”naabhi-chakre kaya-vyuha-gnanam”(hyphens for breaking up the words only). nabhi means navel,chakre means in the energy centre,kaya means the body,vyuha means orderly arrangement or system and gnanam is knowledge.according to yogashastra, the root of all the nerves is in the navel. from the navel 72,000 nerves branch out. it is considered to be the pivot of the sympathetic and the brain of the parasympathetic nervous system. by samyama(integration) on the navel area, the yogi(one who practises yoga) acquires perfect knowledge of the human body.through concentration,meditation and profound absorption. he alone understands the fine dividing line between body and mind and mind and soul. he becomes a master of himself.
the fire in the brain can be doused.modern medicine and yoga both can put people back on their feet.
VITAL SIGNS: AT RISK; Cholesterol Level and Parkinson’s May Be Linked
April 7, 2007 by mike.
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: January 2, 2007
Very low levels of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, may be linked with an increased risk for Parkinson’s disease, a new study suggests.
Researchers compared blood levels of LDL cholesterol in 124 Parkinson’s patients with a control group of 112 of their healthy spouses. Compared with people in the highest one-quarter in LDL levels, those in the lower 75 percent were two to three and a half times as likely to suffer from Parkinson’s. There was no association between Parkinson’s and levels of HDL cholesterol.
Normally, having a low LDL level is a healthy sign. But does this mean that having a higher LDL is actually a good thing? Absolutely not, said Dr. Xuemei Huang, the lead author of the study.
”If a person is healthy with a cholesterol in the middle range, and no family history of heart disease, radically lowering cholesterol may not be necessary,” she said. ”But at the same time, we’re not urging anyone to change his diet or medication based on this finding.” Dr. Huang is a Parkinson’s expert and a neurologist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
The findings, based on retrospective data, could not demonstrate a cause and effect relationship between a low level of LDL and Parkinson’s, the authors said. The paper was published online Dec. 18 in the journal Movement Disorders.
Men and women in the study who used cholesterol-lowering drugs were about a third as likely to have Parkinson’s as those who did not use the drugs. This finding led researchers to suggest that testing the effect of statins on neurodegenerative disease with a much larger sample of patients could be useful.
Drug offers longer Parkinson’s relief, study says
April 5, 2007 by mike.
Newsday
Patients with Parkinson’s disease have long battled the roller-coaster-like effects of the current medicines: Over the course of the disease, the gold standard treatment, L-dopa, doesn’t control the tremors, stiffness, slowness and walking problems, and many don’t know when during the day it will stop working.
What’s more, L-dopa’s side effects — uncontrolled dance-like movements — can be as debilitating as the disease itself.
In the race to find more effective treatments, the latest study, published in the journal Neurology, shows that a once-a-day prolonged-release formula of the federally approved drug ropinirole gives patients two extra hours of symptom relief without worsening the disturbing dyskinesias, or jerky movements, that are seen with L-dopa therapy.
”The fewer pills, the less complicated it will be for Parkinson’s patients,” said Dr. Rajesh Pahwa of the University of Kansas Medical Center, the lead investigator for the study.
In the study, 393 patients who were having problems managing their symptoms with L-dopa alone were given the experimental formulation of ropinirole once a day.
According to the published findings, more than half the patients on the formulation experienced marked improvement, compared with 14 percent of those who took a placebo.
Parkinson’s disease begins when dopamine-containing cells in an area of the brain called the substantia nigra become damaged and die.
Symptoms begin when about 90 percent of the dopamine in this region is depleted. This brain chemical controls movement, coordination and mood.
With fewer dopamine neurons in the region, communication between the brain and the body is slowed.
L-dopa is used to replace the diminishing dopamine chemical. For a while, patients have good control of their symptoms. But as the disease progresses, each dose works for only three to four hours.
The effect of the drug becomes unpredictable, and 16 percent of people on it develop the dancelike movements within nine months of therapy.
In Parkinson’s, there is less dopamine at the juncture, or synapse, between cells. Dopamine agonists like ropinirole work to replace dopamine.
Last week, the Parkinson’s drug Pergolide was voluntarily withdrawn from the market after several years of reports that patients were developing heart valve damage.
This medicine is an older preparation called an ergot dopamine agonist. No such side effects have been identified with ropinirole or any of the newer non-ergot agonists.
Dr. Warren Olanow, professor and chairman of neurology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan, said Parkinson’s doctors are now using these dopamine agonists as the first therapy early on in the disease so that they can push back the need for L-dopa.
There is more treatment hope for Parkinson’s patients. A patch of experimental medicine is now making its way through the Food and Drug Administration regulatory approval process. Also, gene therapy trials are now being carried out in patients, Olanow said.
A million Americans have Parkinson’s, and as the population ages, the number of new patients is expected to rise.
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Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
One of the Largest-Ever Parkinson’s Disease Studies Initiated Across the United States
April 5, 2007 by mike.
ROCHESTER, N.Y., April 5 /PRNewswire/ — Researchers with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) have initiated one of the largest-ever Parkinson’s disease clinical trials.
The study, which involves more than 50 sites and will enroll over 1,700 patients in the U.S. and Canada, is intended to test a new drug therapy, developed by Palo Alto-based Avicena Group, to slow the progress of Parkinson’s disease and help millions of people around the world afflicted with this debilitating disease.
“This study will harness the expertise of some of the top researchers in the country,” says Dr. Karl Kieburtz, lead investigator for the study. “Projects like this are evidence of the scientific and business communities’ commitment and willingness to collaborate to improve the lives of Parkinson’s patients.”
Despite the large patient population, and high profile sufferers including Muhammad Ali, Michael J. Fox and Janet Reno, current drugs can only treat the disease symptoms. None has been shown to slow or halt disease progression.
The NINDS-sponsored study will examine the efficacy and safety of PD-02, which has demonstrated the potential to improve neurological function and to slow disease progression in Parkinson’s patients.
Parkinson’s disease belongs to a group of conditions called movement disorders. Some of the common symptoms of Parkinson’s are tremors of the hands, arms, legs and jaw, rigidity or stiffness of the body, slowness of movement, and impaired balance and coordination. Because Parkinson’s is a chronic disease symptoms worsen over time.
According to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, approximately 40,000 new cases of Parkinson’s are diagnosed each year in the United States with as many as one and a half million people suffering from the disease in total. Individuals eligible for the NIH study are those who have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s within the past five years, and have received and been responsive to therapy in the past three months to two years. This trial is the first in a series of NINDS-sponsored clinical trials called NET-PD (NIH Exploratory Studies in Parkinson’s Disease).
Source: Avicena Group
