Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronhutton
CONCLUSIONS
In PD, the BBB plays a major and very significant part, and merits much more research into methods of controlling the permeability of the BBB. A process that locks down the BBB to all but the few allowed molecules, must be found. It then must be tried on newly diagnosed patients, to establish whether it stops progression of the disease. Then it needs to be tried with advanced sufferers, to establish whether neurogenesis, or birth of new cells, whilst preventing any influx of toxins causing loss of established cells, means that a gradual recovery takes place.
Similarly, the process to totally tighten the BBB needs to be tried on ALS and MS patients, in a similar manner.
BBB porosity does not seem to be the major cause of AD, but it may make a significant improvement in the quality of life of AD sufferers.
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Thanks Ron. The new MS medication Tysabri does just what you suggest, it alters blood-brain barrier permeability by inhibiting adhesion molecules. Unfortunately a seemingly rare side effect seen to date is that if there are latent infections in the CNS already, by shutting the immune system out of the CNS, these latent infections can run amuck and cause great damage. The JC Virus is the one seen and some patients developed PML, a very devastating condition, while on Tysabri. It's still too early to know if there are other infectious concerns with the use of Tysabri, but it has been shown to increase infection rates in those taking it.
Thanks for sharing your work though. It would sure help if there were more paragraph breaks - much easier for us MSer's to read.
