New study uncovers possible cause, breakthrough treatment for Parkinson’s
Posted October 6, 2010 9:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BOSTON, Mass – A new study conducted by Harvard University has uncovered a possible cause of Parkinson’s Disease, as well as a breakthrough treatment for patients suffering from the degenerative movement disorder.
“In every cell in the body, there is a little energy generator called mitochondria, and in Parkinson’s Disease, that particular kind of cell is damaged, which leads to the movement disorder,” said Dr. Anthony Phillips, from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
The study found that Parkinson’s Disease occurs when tiny power plants that fuel the afflicted brain cells are turned off.
“This implies that if you return this gene or protein back on, it might protect the dopamine neurons from insult that was leading to their cell death.”
Giving medication to switch the cells back on may be the answer and reverse the effects of the disease.
Phillips told 680News that there are already approved drugs which could do the trick.
“Indeed, there are some drugs that are being used to target the same site in the periphery of the body, not in the brain,” he said.
“If these drugs can be shown to get into the brain and affect the same mitochondrial function, then it might be able to offer some protection in the brain of Parkinson’s patients.”
More research is needed, but Phillips said the new information could result in a treatment that would ward off, or even reverse the crippling effects of the disease in its earliest stages.
Harvard scientists have called the discovery an exciting breakthrough. The study appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
