[Stitcher]

Shedding some light on Parkinson's treatment

PhysOrg.com, April 16th, 2009

A research team lead by Karl Deisseroth in the bioengineering department at Stanford University has developed a technique to systematically characterize disease circuits in the brain. By precisely controlling individual components of the circuit implicated in Parkinson's disease, the team has identified a specific group of cells as direct targets of deep brain stimulation (DBS), a Parkinson's treatment.

Termed optogenetics, the NSF-funded technology uses light-activated proteins, originally isolated from bacteria, in combination with genetic approaches to control specific parts of the brain. The technique is a vast improvement over previous methods because it allows researchers to precisely stimulate neurons and measure the effect of treatment simultaneously in animals with Parkinson's-like symptoms.

Published in the April 17 issue of Science, Deisseroth's team found they could reduce disease symptoms by preferentially activating neurons that link to the subthalamic nucleus region of the brain. First, these specific cells were treated in a way that made them sensitive to stimulation by blue light, then the team implanted an optical fiber in the brain.

Read article...