I take a break from the world of PD only to stumble upon this little gem of an article...note the use of the word "breakthrough"? I glanced at the article and my first instinct was well, here we go again yet another path that takes us nowhere. I was wrong. There is a definite buzz about this one!

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/214217.php

http://www.pdonlineresearch.org/news...al-role-progre

I think it was Madelyn who was cautioning in general about therapies targeting alpha-synuclein because we do not fully understand its role. I for sure am convinced it is the bad guy. The breakthrough is the discovery that alpha-synuclein, not only aggregates and folds...it travels!

Wow. So we have a normally benign protein gone bad. This folded, sick protein actually slips and slides into our newly generated neurons, killing them as well and ensuring that we never catch up. So very many questions come to mind. Oh, the really weird part is that apparently the proteins travel in a prion like way to infect hosts. I will look up prions, but what this means we have more in common with Mad Cow Disease than anything else!

I think this further supports U Nebraska and Affirris vaccine treatment; they aim to redirect our immune cells to the sick protein. This is exciting news because it provides more of a rationale or mandate to kill off something our body normally produces. It also shows that as more is learned about this rogue protein, researchers may eventually be able to stop the pathology earlier like before folding occurs .

This is promising news and yes, a breakthrough, I'd say. Funny how it slipped by most of us.

Laura

Laura

I like your wording, "cautioning in general about therapies targeting alpha-synuclein because we do not fully understand its role." That's' what makes me fear gene therapy! Especially using viral vectors (sorry Carolyn ). We cannot fully understand the role of a virius - and past research with viruses haven't been so positive.

Having let researchers put stuff in my head that had never been used in humans, I'm not a good one to give advice, but think about this. I see science putting nearly all of their eggs in one basket - it's almost as if it's the fashionable wave of the month to use new therapies of dopamine replacement (paste - cell transplants - stem cells, etc). Then for the last 4-5 years, researchers are using more and more viral vector delivieries of growth factors, and other "stuff." Heck, it's not been that many years that we have even been studying genetics using DNA and the human genome project.

Am I being too cautious?
Peg

They have new evidence now though with alpha synuclein. A vaccine may be faster. They are also working on cancer vaccines.

http://journals.lww.com/neurotodayon...xperts.12.aspx

CDC - Prion Diseases

Did you ear about the MMR vaccine study supposedly linked to autism? Now they say it was fraud! Jeez! who can you trust?

i'll be researching this as it appears to involve certain genes. It's good news for the direction of research and they are working on this already, but also gives words and a name to just how serious this disorder is - as if that hasn't already been demonstrated to us repeatedly. it kind of puts it in a league with cancer. we knew this and it gives great hope to young onset and future pwp.

First question that comes to mind, is will gdnf and some of the other trials coming up still continue to help relieve the symptoms? One of our arguments at the time of gdnf protest was that they don't do this because they are waiting for the magic bullet and new therapies were more lucrative. But it provided relief and was not considered a cure. We felt that this was basically giving up on a few generations of pwp. That concern has returned and I do admit to reading about prions and the debate on pdonline research and going into immediate denial because it was compared to cancer.

but it is what it is - maybe

peg, dr. wakefield (?) was interviewed this morning and says many untruths are being told. he said he believes his patients. there was more. who knows what to believe. patients insist their children got sick after the vaccine but perhaps it was not as frequently as we think. my neuro brought this up voluntarily and insisted vaccines are safe. major patient/doctor gap.

By golly i just had a positive thought - you can beat cancer.

I think it is pretty clear that this protein for whatever reasons (largely genetic- I imho) goes rogue; it starts as perfectly benign yet in its pathological state becomes homicidal. It slips into newly generated cells/hosts and causes the protein within it to misfold and become toxic as well.

Researchers in pursuit of that vaccine are saying don't even think about it's natural function. It is almost in a way like cancer with abnormal cells generating out of control. Except here we have a protein that is invasive and one that we normally have within our own system? How does it become toxic? What causes the misfolding?

Here is an excellent overview of alpha-synuclein with special emphasis on its behavior/role in PD:

http://www.molecularneurodegeneration.com/content/4/1/9

Paula, I think this finding confirms something that Girija said some time ago, not verbatim but something like the closes we can come to a cure right now is to stop the progression AND to replenish our lost neurons. I think we can see both of these on the horizon as a way to "cure" PD until researchers can stop the protein misfolding in the first place. Right now big hopes on a vaccine + GDNF

Furthermore, I am going out on a limb here. We have proof that not all of our neurons die some remain okay but out of commission plus we still generate our own. Think back to the posts on forced pace cycling. Exercise we know is a strong neurotrophic. I think of Nan Little who was able to stop her PD meds all together after awhile; I'm not sure that was maintained. What is says though is that in earliest stages we can generate enough neuronal growth to the point where it seems we have reversed our own PD? This says to me that it takes less than 80% loss of dopa cells for symptoms to appear. How in the world would Nan be able to replenish enough of her dopa to essentially be normal again in just a few short weeks when it took decades to get her ? Maybe exercise also hinders that rogue protein from traveling to other cells? We don't know but something in the mix is responding in a major way.

Peg,

My little boy turns two in March, so I am keenly aware. I think that the link between vaccine and autism is a valid one to a point. It serves to show that medicine has a built in iatrogenic component meaning something along the lines of it won't cure you, it may just kill you. Something that is designed to help can hurt you. This is what parents need to know as a fundamental truth and then weight options. The vaccine & autism controversy stems from the case of Hannah Polling who had an undetected mitochondrial disorder, so giving her a vaccine was a bad idea because it ended up triggering the disorder and resulted in autism. Yes, some people have the right environment for it, but just like PD it is more complex than a direct cause effect scenario. What is the answer? We can't possibly screen every child for mitochondria dysfunction, so what is the answer? The thought of many people now choosing to not vaccinate is scary. We now have autism but do we really want to expose our kids to polio all over again; not to mention that the measles can be especially virulent.

I think we need to vaccinate and there are ways you can safeguard your children in the process.

I know of many people who have PD; they insist, with no research to back it, that a vaccine gave them PD. Well, they now face a bit of a quandary if that PD vaccine in development does actually halt disease progression?


Laura

Laura

Ok, for all of us dummys,

What is the role of alpha-synuclein in the body?

What exactly is it supposed to do in a healthy person? We know what it does in a PD affected person.

Why, when you have two people living, working, and playing side by side does alpha-synuclein go "roge" in one person and not the other? They are both exposed to the same enviromental toxins at the same time and levels.

As for vaccines, I believe they have thier place and many do protect or prevent diseases. However, I think I will let a few thousand go ahead of me in line on this one for now.

GregD

hey we all must be dummies, even the top researchers. They don't know either.

1. you are not a dummy
2. i stood up at PAN and asked the same question a few years back. langston said that's the magic question. but, as girija (a pd researcher) says it's "clogging" our cells.

Hey Paula - remember that Langston also replied, at that PAN forum, that if he understood alpha synuclein he'd "be in Stockholm" ---- implying if he had the answer, he'd also have the Nobel Prize. They are still working hard to figure it out!