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Originally Posted by soccertese
all these trials use statistics to determine if there is a statistically significant affect in the treatment group vs. the placebo, and they give the probability that the difference is just due to chance. so you are saying all clinical research that relies on statistical analysis is defective? that researchers purposely avoid picking candidates at random and aren't assuming a normal distribution? even trials done over multiple locations and even countries?
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Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. As long as there are no biomarkers, these trials aren't very reliable. Especially not if you don't divide the patients according to the subgroup they belong in. Reread the article of the OP. Basically, this is what the article also states. These new tests on human neurons will change the way clinical trials are going to be conducted in the future. This is the same as stating that there is something wrong with the current way clinical trials are designed. That doesn't mean that scientist were stupid. Science progressed and the gained knowledge just showed them they were doing it wrong. Statistics isn't magic. If you don't know all variables having an influence on the statistics, your statical results are wrong or you will always come to the conclusion that nothing is neuroprotective.
Quote:
Originally Posted by soccertese
of course would be better to test on human neurons and that seems to be the goal but you still have to test on humans, the compound has to get past the digestive system, the liver, the blood brain barrier and to the brain.
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Indeed. Unless ... people bypass the digestive system, liver and blood brain barrier. Anyway, if something isn't neuroprotective on the human neurons in the plate, you can stop wasting resources on it. If it is neuroprotective, it all comes down to a matter of getting the product in the neurons in the brain. Then it comes down to finding ways to get it there. Maybe via the techniques from MedGenesis ? But the first important thing is to know it is neuroprotective on human neurons ... not on mice neurons. Now, we test it on mice neurons and monkeys and then we go test on humans. Like this, a lot of resources are waisted. If it is protective in human neurons ... it is protective and it mainly comes down to a problem of delivery and side-effects.
Quote:
Originally Posted by soccertese
i stated they have done trials following patients on selegilene and dopamine agonists and found no significant neuroprotection.
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I am not saying they are neuroprotective. But as I already said before, I have doubts about the way clinical trials were conducted. They have no biomarkers. They base themselves on a subjective rating scale. I don't really trust this. Besides this, people all have a different PD with a different progression rate. They didnt take this into account in the trials. This makes the trials even more dubious. Anyway, one thing is for sure ... neuroprotective or not, it is not a miracle cure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by soccertese
as far as coq10, after the trial showing positive results from 1200mg/day came out, i'm sure thousands of pd'ers started taking coq10 and if anyone had and sig. slowing of progression it would have been mentioned on this board.
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How can you know progression slowed down or not ? There is no way to find out about this. You need biomarkers OR the neuroprotective agent must be extremely neuroprotective. If something is 20 or 30 % neuroprotective, you will definitely not notice this.
Anyway ... I guess scientists doing research on this are aware of how to use this new technique to speed up PD research and waist less money on clinical trials on products that are not going to work anyway. They are more knowledgable than we are. Anyway, this technique is a real blessing for the PD community.
I also guess they can use this technique to implant the dopamine neurons in the brain. They only need to fix the wrong gene and the neuron works perfect again. After implantation the neuron will not be rejected because it is the same as the neurons in your body.