Scripps Florida makes Parkinson's discovery

Palm Beach Post, February 16, 2011

JUPITER —
Scientists at Scripps Florida have discovered a way to stop the progress of Parkinson's disease, the brain disorder that afflicts about 1 million Americans and has defied the search for a cure.

Scripps researchers gave mice and rats a pill that successfully stalled the disease's march. In two articles published this month in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience, the scientists say they've found a molecule that blocks the enzyme JNK from killing neurons in rodents with Parkinson's.

"It won't cure them," LoGrasso said. "But they would begin taking it and hopefully the disease wouldn't get any worse."

The drug might not be given to humans for years, if ever. But if this invented-in-Jupiter pill finds its way to pharmacies, its success would provide both financial and psychic payback for the $579 million that state and local taxpayers spent to set up the Scripps Florida labs here.

In mice, Scripps' drug - known as SR-3306 - protected 72 percent of dopamine-producing neurons. In rats, the compound saved only 30 percent of neurons, but even that level of protection reduced rats' motor dysfunction by 90 percent, Scripps scientists said.