Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffreyn
From the MIT Technology Review article, which appears to me to be the basis for this Business Insider article:
“…the concept for the Parkinson’s gene therapy dates to 1986, when Bankiewicz first determined that too little AADC was the reason L-Dopa stops working.”
I don’t think I’ve seen it said elsewhere that this is the accepted reason why L-Dopa stops working. Might this be more of a theory than an established fact?
Anyway, they are making good progress, so let’s hope that the next trial confirms their past results!
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/6...-gene-therapy/ |
Well, what is fact is that AADC (aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase) is the enzyme that metabolizes levodopa into dopamine. As we know, dopamine itself cannot pass through the BBB, but levodopa can. When we take oral levodopa, a small amount passes through the BBB into the brain and gets converted to dopamine by AADC. AADC will also convert levodopa into dopamine in the body. This is the reason why we also take Carbidopa, which is an inhibitor of AADC, and prevents the premature conversion of levodopa to dopamine in the body before it gets to the brain.
What we don't know is if the AADC gene created by Voyager, which gets implanted into the brain, will actually allow the dying dopamine producing cells to keep on converting levodopa into dopamine. That's what they will be researching.