Potential treatment for Parkinson's disease discovered

[longknife]

Date: July 16, 2015

Source: Nanyang Technological University

Summary:= Scientists have found that existing anti-malaria drugs could be a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that causes a person to lose control of motor movements, such as the ability to move his or her hands, arms, and legs.


Absolutely great news – if it works! From http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150716091710.htm

 

[waltky]

Exercise may not help Parkinson's patients...

Parkinson's patients may not benefit from physical therapy
Jan. 20, 2016 : Long-term addition of regular physical activity may have a greater effect on Parkinson's symptoms than traditional physical therapy programs, researchers said.

People with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease do not benefit from physical therapy, researchers in England found in a new study. Researchers at the University of Birmingham said there were no clinical or lifestyle improvements as a result of physical and occupational therapy, suggesting better programs need to be created to benefit patients. Parkinson's disease affects about 7 million people around the world, and 4 percent of people over the age of 80.

Researchers in a new study conducted in England found no measurable difference between early Parkinson's patients who had physical therapy and those who did not, suggesting the treatment is not enough to have an effect.​

The study was focused on patients with mild to moderate Parkinson's, which some researchers say should be interpreted as narrowing who is referred for physical therapy but should not rule it out. Part of the motivation for the study, the researchers said, was to be sure funds in England's National Health Service are allocated for effective treatments. "This shows that there is an urgent requirement to review current guidelines for patients with Parkinson's disease," said Dr. Carl Clarke, a researcher at the University of Birmingham, in a press release. "The resource that is committed towards these therapies, that do not appear to be effective, could be better used in patients with more severe problems with their Parkinson's disease."

For the study, published in JAMA Neurology, researchers recruited 762 people with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease, randomly enrolling 381 of them in physiotherapy and occupational therapy, while the other 381 received no therapy. Based on the Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living Scale and Parkinson Disease Questionnaire, the researchers reported little to no immediate or medium-term meaningful improvements to their condition or life.

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[waltky]

Eye Test May Reveal Parkinson’s Disease Earlier...

Eye Test May Reveal Parkinson’s Disease Earlier
September 07, 2016 - Parkinson's disease is usually discovered too late in patients for effective treatment. But now there's a new eye test that could diagnose the devastating condition much earlier. The degenerative condition causes muscle stiffness, slowness of movement, and tremors. Although there is no cure for Parkinson’s, if the disease can be caught at its beginning stages, medications and other therapy could help control the symptoms.

The new eye test may be a breakthrough for spotting Parkinson’s disease early. Most people may not know they have it for many years because the disease is gradual, causing nerve cell damage in the brain that affects the central nervous system. And right now, there is no one test or brain scan that can diagnose the condition. Using a new imaging technique, the new eye test looks for changes in people’s retinas. It was developed by researchers at the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology.

First, scientists injected rats with a chemical that causes Parkinson’s. Once they saw the changes in the retina, they treated the rats with an anti-diabetic drug, that helps protect nerve cells, and which, according to ophthalmologist Dr. Eduardo Normando, could potentially be used to treat the disease. “By injecting the Rosiglitazone in these rats we were able to see a rescue effect of Rosiglitazone in this model, first in the eye and then in the brain,” said Normando.

It’s not known why people get Parkinson’s, which is estimated to affect one in every 500 people like the late boxer Muhammad Ali. Testing for Parkinson’s in the retina first could have far-reaching implications, said Dr. Francesa Cordeiro, an ophthalmologist. “It could predict that, that person needs a second tier of investigations which will decide whether they have Parkinson’s or not, and then you could carry on using this test to monitor, not only how fast they are progressing, but actually, if they are on the correct treatment and that’s huge,” said Cordeiro.

Human trials for the Parkinson’s eye test are to begin soon. “If you've seen the effects in the retina well before you see those effects in the brain, then actually you could shorten the length of clinical trials, and you could use this as a very good marker of treatment success. But in the long run, what we think is that it could be a way of trying to see if patients are ever going to get Parkinson's disease," said Cordeiro. And that could lead to better treatment for the debilitating disease in the future -- with testing possibly being done during a regular eye check-up.

Eye Test May Reveal Parkinson’s Disease Earlier

 

[waltky]

Probiotics may help against Parkinson's...

Parkinson's disease may start in gut
Fri, 02 Dec 2016 - The brain disorder Parkinson's disease may actually start with bacteria living in the gut, according to scientists.

Scientists in California say they have transformed understanding of Parkinson's disease. Their animal experiments, published in the journal Cell, suggest the brain disorder may be caused by bacteria living in the gut. The findings could eventually lead to new ways of treating the disease, such as drugs to kill gut bugs or probiotics. Experts said the results opened an "exciting new avenue of study". In Parkinson's disease the brain is progressively damaged, leading to patients experiencing a tremor and difficulty moving. Researchers used mice genetically programmed to develop Parkinson's as they produced very high levels of the protein alpha-synuclein, which is associated with damage in the brains of Parkinson's patients.

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But only those animals with bacteria in their stomachs developed symptoms. Sterile mice remained healthy. Further tests showed transplanting bacteria from Parkinson's patients to mice led to more symptoms than bacteria taken from healthy people. Dr Timothy Sampson, one of the researchers at the California Institute of Technology, said: "This was the 'eureka' moment, the mice were genetically identical, the only difference was the presence or absence of gut microbiota. "Now we were quite confident that gut bacteria regulate, and are even required for, the symptoms of Parkinson's disease."

'Paradigm shift'

The scientists believe the bacteria are releasing chemicals that over-activate parts of the brain, leading to damage. The bacteria can break down fibre into short-chain fatty acids. It is thought an imbalance in these chemicals triggers the immune cells in the brain to cause damage. Dr Sarkis Mazmanian said: "We have discovered for the first time a biological link between the gut microbiome and Parkinson's disease. "More generally, this research reveals that a neurodegenerative disease may have its origins in the gut and not only in the brain as had been previously thought. "The discovery that changes in the microbiome may be involved in Parkinson's disease is a paradigm shift and opens entirely new possibilities for treating patients." Parkinson's is currently incurable. While the findings need to be confirmed in people, but the researchers hope that drugs that work in the digestive system or even probiotics may become new therapies for the disease.

The trillions of bacteria that live in the gut are hugely important to health, so wiping them out completely is not an option. Dr Arthur Roach, from the charity Parkinson's UK, said: "In recent years, evidence has been growing that Parkinson's may begin in the gut, but the chain of events involved has so far remained a mystery. "This work opens an exciting new avenue of study on the gut-brain connection in Parkinson's. "There are still many questions to answer, but we hope this will trigger more research that will ultimately revolutionise treatment options for Parkinson's." Dr Patrick Lewis, from the University of Reading, said: "This study really does reinforce the idea that examining what goes on in the stomach of people with Parkinson's could provide really important insights into what happens in disease, and potentially a new area of biology to target in trying to slow down or halt the changes in the brain."

Parkinson's disease 'may start in gut' - BBC News