Originally Posted by Tupelo3

Thanks, I hadn't seen this paper. If you read it, you'll see that it supports everything I've said. The clinical trials to date have been at best inconclusive, and generally very disappointing. The suggestions of benefit the authors provide are all from naturally occurring GDNF (e.g. through increased exercise) or are animal, in-vitro, or epidemiological. There still is no conclusive evidence that administering GDNF into the brain, or body, will benefit PD patients.

Look, I'm not arguing against opening up GDNF, along with many other neurotrophic factors, to more research. There is no one around who wants to see that more than me. There is no one who hopes they will succeed in being neuroprotective more than me. In fact, I'm probably one of the few people on this board who is actually currently involved in a neurotrophic clinical study. And, if others open up, and I'm eligible to participate, I will.

What I am arguing against is taking theories, hypotheses and anecdotal reports and stating them as facts. Why don't we all fight for opening up more research on neurotrophic growth factors and then volunteer to participate in the research so we can move the science forward and find some answers, and maybe a cure, along the way.

Originally Posted by Tupelo3

Thanks for the link. I'm curious about your broad statement that GDNF has been shown to be beneficial to PD patients. Can you please post some links for that research. I'm familiar with some anecdotal reports of success, as well as one small open label trial, however, it was my understanding that most of the GDNF trials have failed to show any efficacy.

Originally Posted by zanpar321

This is an interesting trial using GDNF to help PD patients.

www.disease-treatment.com/showthread.php?t=63155

Originally Posted by zanpar321

This is an interesting trial using GDNF to help PD patients.

www.disease-treatment.com/showthread.php?t=63155

Originally Posted by Tupelo3

Zanpar, without trying to be combative at all, I would like to point out that this is a 14 year old study. It's the one that is quoted in most other research to date, and is listed right at the top of the summary report you previously posted. So yes, it was interesting back then, but it's old info, not new.

What I would like to see now is more research on several different growth factors, not just GDNF, particularly those that are in peptide form and can cross the BBB without having to be surgically implanted. That would also allow for study designs that don't have to be open label. I would also like to see advances in biomarker and imaging research so we can test more definitively if these drugs/procedures are actually working.

Originally Posted by zanpar321

Of course all of us would like to see more research on GDNF. That doesn't change the results of the studies that have been done in the past that showed that GDNF showed is quite promising. The Cure Parkinson's Trust is presently doing a GDNF study in the UK as I posted earlier. It is amazing how the Amgen study was so successful (in the eyes of the patients) yet it is viewed by many as a failure and was terminated prematurely. What happened there? Why are so many of us PD patients so willing to wait patiently for Big Pharma to deliver a cure? Clearly, it's not in their best interests to ever do that!

http://redirect.hp.com/svs/rdr?TYPE=...us&bd=HP&c=134

Originally Posted by soccertese

i'm not expecting big pharma for a cure for pd and i'm ambivilant about gdnf . please don't try to speak for me. i'm betting on the mjff working with many researchers from universities, govt, foundations and smaller biotech companies, domestic and international. i'm not going to dwell on the past and amgen's decision to cancel their gdnf trial. that's been debated years ago, time to move on.

your're free to post whatever you want within reason here but not sure why you are taking up this "cause" here since noone is really stopping GDNF research, if it was really promising money would be found, even from big pharma. they are certainly working on a cure for alzheimers and other CNS diseases. I'm done with this thread.