[lurkingforacure]

Anyone see this headline about a PD vaccine in trials? They don't even know what causes this! Or maybe they are working backwards and this will help find cure for those already suffering? Here's the link:

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...FF2A8E4D98E%7D

[reverett123]

First, they are betting that stopping alpha-synuclein is all it will take;
Second, they are saying there is no problem with inducing our immune system to attack a peptide that we produce.

Third, there is this-

1: Acta Neuropathol. 2008 Apr;115(4):479-89. Epub 2008 Jan 10.

Curcumin inhibits aggregation of alpha-synuclein.

Pandey N, Strider J, Nolan WC, Yan SX, Galvin JE.

Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine,
St Louis, MO 63110, USA.

Aggregation of amyloid-beta protein (Abeta) is a key pathogenic event in
Alzheimer's disease (AD). Curcumin, a constituent of the Indian spice Turmeric is
structurally similar to Congo Red and has been demonstrated to bind Abeta amyloid
and prevent further oligomerization of Abeta monomers onto growing amyloid
beta-sheets. Reasoning that oligomerization kinetics and mechanism of amyloid
formation are similar in Parkinson's disease (PD) and AD, we investigated the
effect of curcumin on alpha-synuclein (AS) protein aggregation. In vitro model of
AS aggregation was developed by treatment of purified AS protein (wild-type) with
1 mM Fe3+ (Fenton reaction). It was observed that the addition of curcumin
inhibited aggregation in a dose-dependent manner and increased AS solubility. The
aggregation-inhibiting effect of curcumin was next investigated in cell culture
utilizing catecholaminergic SH-SY5Y cell line. A model system was developed in
which the red fluorescent protein (DsRed2) was fused with A53T mutant of AS and
its aggregation examined under different concentrations of curcumin. To estimate
aggregation in an unbiased manner, a protocol was developed in which the images
were captured automatically through a high-throughput cell-based screening
microscope. The obtained images were processed automatically for aggregates
within a defined dimension of 1-6 microm. Greater than 32% decrease in mutant
alpha-synuclein aggregation was observed within 48 h subsequent to curcumin
addition. Our data suggest that curcumin inhibits AS oligomerization into higher
molecular weight aggregates and therefore should be further explored as a
potential therapeutic compound for PD and related disorders.


PMID: 18189141 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Originally Posted by lurkingforacure

Anyone see this headline about a PD vaccine in trials? They don't even know what causes this! Or maybe they are working backwards and this will help find cure for those already suffering? Here's the link:

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...FF2A8E4D98E%7D