Parkinson's Disease Tulip


advertisement
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-10-2007, 04:27 PM #1
jeanb's Avatar
jeanb jeanb is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: sonoran desert
Posts: 1,352
15 yr Member
jeanb jeanb is offline
Senior Member
jeanb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: sonoran desert
Posts: 1,352
15 yr Member
Default Drug slows and may halt Parkinson's disease

All - I learned about this at PAN in February. I've been taking it for two months now. No cure yet - but I am giving it time. Hope is alive.

Jean
===========================

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-nfd060707.php

Drug slows and may halt Parkinson's disease

CHICAGO --- Northwestern University researchers have discovered a drug that slows – and may even halt – the progression of Parkinson’s disease. The drug rejuvenates aging dopamine cells, whose death in the brain causes the symptoms of this devastating and widespread disease.

D. James Surmeier, the Nathan Smith Davis Professor and chair of physiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and his team of researchers have found that isradipine, a drug widely used for hypertension and stroke, restores stressed-out dopamine neurons to their vigorous younger selves. The study is described in a feature article in the international journal Nature, which will be published on-line June 10.

Dopamine is a critical chemical messenger in the brain that affects a person’s ability to direct his movements. In Parkinson’s disease, the neurons that release dopamine die, causing movement to become more and more difficult.

Ultimately, a person loses the ability to walk, talk or pick up a glass of water. The illness is the second most common neurodegenenerative disease in the country, affecting about 1 million people. The incidence of Parkinson’s disease increases with age, soaring after age 60.

“Our hope is that this drug will protect dopamine neurons, so that if you began taking it early enough, you won’t get Parkinson’s disease, even if you were at risk. ” said Surmeier, who heads the Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease Research at Northwestern. “It would be like taking a baby aspirin everyday to protect your heart.”

Isradipine may also significantly benefit people who already have Parkinson’s disease. In animal models of the disease, Surmeier’s team found the drug protected dopamine neurons from toxins that would normally kill them by restoring the neurons to a younger state in which they are less vulnerable.

The principal therapy for Parkinson’s disease patients currently is L-DOPA, which is converted in the brain to dopamine. Although L-DOPA relieves many symptoms of the disease in its early stages, the drug becomes less effective over time. As the disease progresses, higher doses of L-DOPA are required to help patients, leading to unwanted side-effects that include involuntary movements. The hope is that by slowing the death of dopamine neurons, isradipine could significantly extend the time in which L-DOPA works effectively.

“If we could double or triple the therapeutic window for L-DOPA, it would be a huge advance,” Surmeier said.

The work by Surmeier’s group is particularly exciting because nothing is known to prevent or slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

“There has not been a major advance in the pharmacological management of Parkinson’s disease for 30 years,” Surmeier said.

Surmeier, who has researched Parkinson’s disease for 20 years, had long been frustrated because it wasn’t known how or why dopamine cells die in the disease. “It didn’t seem like we were making much progress in spite of intense study on several fronts,” he said.

Because he’s a physiologist, Surmeier decided to investigate whether the electrical activity of dopamine neurons might provide a clue to their vulnerability. All neurons in the brain use electrical signals to do their job, much like digital computers.

First, Surmeier observed that dopamine neurons are non-stop workers called pacemakers. They generate regular electrical signals seven days a week, 24 hours a day, just like pacemaker cells in the heart. This was already known. But then he probed more deeply and discovered something very strange about these dopamine neurons.

Most pacemaking neurons use sodium ions (like those found in table salt) to produce electrical signals. But Surmeier found that adult dopamine neurons use calcium instead.

Sodium is a mild mannered ion that does its job without causing a whit of trouble to the cell. Calcium ions, however, are wild and rambunctious. Remember when Marlon Brando rode into town with his motorcycle gang in “The Wild One”" Those guys were like calcium ions.

“The reliance upon calcium was a red flag to us,” Surmeier said. Calcium ions need to be chaperoned by the cell almost as soon as they enter to keep them from causing trouble, he noted. The cell has to sequester them or keep pumping them out. This takes a lot of energy.

“It’s a little like having a room full of two year olds you have to watch like a hawk so they don’t get into trouble,” Surmeier said. “That’s really going to stress you.” With three boys under age eleven, he can relate to the stressed dopamine neuron.

Surmeier theorized that the non-stop stress on the dopamine neurons explains why they are more vulnerable to toxins and die at a more rapid rate as we age.

But these findings still didn’t offer him a new therapy.

Then, serendipity struck when he was working on a different problem. He discovered that young dopamine neurons and adult ones have an entirely different way of operating.

When the neurons are young, Surmeier found they actually use sodium ions to do their work. But as the neurons age, they become more and more dependent on the troublesome calcium and stop using sodium. This calcium dependence – and the stress it causes the neurons --is what makes them more vulnerable to death.

What would happen, Surmeier wondered, if he simply blocked the calcium’s route into the adult neuron cells" Would the neurons revert to their youthful behavior and start using sodium again"

“The cells had put away their old childhood tools in the closet. The question was if we stopped them from behaving like adults would they go into the closet and get them out again"” Surmeier asked. “Sure enough, they did.”

When he gave the mice isradipine, it blocked the calcium from entering the dopamine neuron. At first, the dopamine neurons became silent. But within a few hours, they had reverted to their childhood ways, once again using sodium to get their work done.

“This lowers the cells’ stress level and makes them much more resistant to any other insult that’s going to come along down the road. They start acting like they’re youngsters again,” Surmeier said.

The next step will be launching a clinical study.

"This animal study suggests that calcium channel blockers, drugs currently used to reduce blood pressure, might someday be used to slow the steady progression of Parkinson's disease," said Walter J. Koroshetz, M.D., deputy director of the NINDS.


###
To reach D. James Surmeier on Saturday and Sunday please call his cell phone at 773-844-1057.
__________________
Jean B

This isn't the life I wished for, but it is the life I have. So I'm doing my best.
jeanb is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Old 06-10-2007, 04:43 PM #2
ZucchiniFlower's Avatar
ZucchiniFlower ZucchiniFlower is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 782
15 yr Member
ZucchiniFlower ZucchiniFlower is offline
Member
ZucchiniFlower's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 782
15 yr Member
Default

Wow, the cells adapted in just a few hours? Amazing!

I take high BP medication. Maybe I can switch to isradipine.

Thanks alot for posting this.

Article about side effects:

http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/reprint/31/4/809

~Zucchini
ZucchiniFlower is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Old 06-11-2007, 04:58 PM #3
geraldo geraldo is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Washington state
Posts: 55
15 yr Member
geraldo geraldo is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Washington state
Posts: 55
15 yr Member
Default

Hi Jean,
I hope your getting the real thing and not a placebo. Do you have high BP normally? How would this drug effect a pwp that didn't have high BP? What is the dosage you take? If it does work for you will they have you reduce your Parkinson's meds? Do you know if they are still taking people for the trial? Its nice to see some positive research being done on people not mice.
jerry
geraldo is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Old 06-11-2007, 05:09 PM #4
RLSmi's Avatar
RLSmi RLSmi is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: dx'd4/01@63 Louisiana
Posts: 562
15 yr Member
RLSmi RLSmi is offline
Member
RLSmi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: dx'd4/01@63 Louisiana
Posts: 562
15 yr Member
Default Jean; Are you on a formal clinical trial?

Quote:
Originally Posted by jeanb View Post
All - I learned about this at PAN in February. I've been taking it for two months now. No cure yet - but I am giving it time. Hope is alive.

Jean
===========================

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-nfd060707.php

Drug slows and may halt Parkinson's disease

CHICAGO --- Northwestern University researchers have discovered a drug that slows – and may even halt – the progression of Parkinson’s disease. The drug rejuvenates aging dopamine cells, whose death in the brain causes the symptoms of this devastating and widespread disease.

D. James Surmeier, the Nathan Smith Davis Professor and chair of physiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and his team of researchers have found that isradipine, a drug widely used for hypertension and stroke, restores stressed-out dopamine neurons to their vigorous younger selves. The study is described in a feature article in the international journal Nature, which will be published on-line June 10.

Dopamine is a critical chemical messenger in the brain that affects a person’s ability to direct his movements. In Parkinson’s disease, the neurons that release dopamine die, causing movement to become more and more difficult.

Ultimately, a person loses the ability to walk, talk or pick up a glass of water. The illness is the second most common neurodegenenerative disease in the country, affecting about 1 million people. The incidence of Parkinson’s disease increases with age, soaring after age 60.

“Our hope is that this drug will protect dopamine neurons, so that if you began taking it early enough, you won’t get Parkinson’s disease, even if you were at risk. ” said Surmeier, who heads the Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease Research at Northwestern. “It would be like taking a baby aspirin everyday to protect your heart.”

Isradipine may also significantly benefit people who already have Parkinson’s disease. In animal models of the disease, Surmeier’s team found the drug protected dopamine neurons from toxins that would normally kill them by restoring the neurons to a younger state in which they are less vulnerable.

The principal therapy for Parkinson’s disease patients currently is L-DOPA, which is converted in the brain to dopamine. Although L-DOPA relieves many symptoms of the disease in its early stages, the drug becomes less effective over time. As the disease progresses, higher doses of L-DOPA are required to help patients, leading to unwanted side-effects that include involuntary movements. The hope is that by slowing the death of dopamine neurons, isradipine could significantly extend the time in which L-DOPA works effectively.

“If we could double or triple the therapeutic window for L-DOPA, it would be a huge advance,” Surmeier said.

The work by Surmeier’s group is particularly exciting because nothing is known to prevent or slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

“There has not been a major advance in the pharmacological management of Parkinson’s disease for 30 years,” Surmeier said.

Surmeier, who has researched Parkinson’s disease for 20 years, had long been frustrated because it wasn’t known how or why dopamine cells die in the disease. “It didn’t seem like we were making much progress in spite of intense study on several fronts,” he said.

Because he’s a physiologist, Surmeier decided to investigate whether the electrical activity of dopamine neurons might provide a clue to their vulnerability. All neurons in the brain use electrical signals to do their job, much like digital computers.

First, Surmeier observed that dopamine neurons are non-stop workers called pacemakers. They generate regular electrical signals seven days a week, 24 hours a day, just like pacemaker cells in the heart. This was already known. But then he probed more deeply and discovered something very strange about these dopamine neurons.

Most pacemaking neurons use sodium ions (like those found in table salt) to produce electrical signals. But Surmeier found that adult dopamine neurons use calcium instead.

Sodium is a mild mannered ion that does its job without causing a whit of trouble to the cell. Calcium ions, however, are wild and rambunctious. Remember when Marlon Brando rode into town with his motorcycle gang in “The Wild One”" Those guys were like calcium ions.

“The reliance upon calcium was a red flag to us,” Surmeier said. Calcium ions need to be chaperoned by the cell almost as soon as they enter to keep them from causing trouble, he noted. The cell has to sequester them or keep pumping them out. This takes a lot of energy.

“It’s a little like having a room full of two year olds you have to watch like a hawk so they don’t get into trouble,” Surmeier said. “That’s really going to stress you.” With three boys under age eleven, he can relate to the stressed dopamine neuron.

Surmeier theorized that the non-stop stress on the dopamine neurons explains why they are more vulnerable to toxins and die at a more rapid rate as we age.

But these findings still didn’t offer him a new therapy.

Then, serendipity struck when he was working on a different problem. He discovered that young dopamine neurons and adult ones have an entirely different way of operating.

When the neurons are young, Surmeier found they actually use sodium ions to do their work. But as the neurons age, they become more and more dependent on the troublesome calcium and stop using sodium. This calcium dependence – and the stress it causes the neurons --is what makes them more vulnerable to death.

What would happen, Surmeier wondered, if he simply blocked the calcium’s route into the adult neuron cells" Would the neurons revert to their youthful behavior and start using sodium again"

“The cells had put away their old childhood tools in the closet. The question was if we stopped them from behaving like adults would they go into the closet and get them out again"” Surmeier asked. “Sure enough, they did.”

When he gave the mice isradipine, it blocked the calcium from entering the dopamine neuron. At first, the dopamine neurons became silent. But within a few hours, they had reverted to their childhood ways, once again using sodium to get their work done.

“This lowers the cells’ stress level and makes them much more resistant to any other insult that’s going to come along down the road. They start acting like they’re youngsters again,” Surmeier said.

The next step will be launching a clinical study.

"This animal study suggests that calcium channel blockers, drugs currently used to reduce blood pressure, might someday be used to slow the steady progression of Parkinson's disease," said Walter J. Koroshetz, M.D., deputy director of the NINDS.


###
To reach D. James Surmeier on Saturday and Sunday please call his cell phone at 773-844-1057.
Or are you taking it "off label"?

I have Geraldo's questions too.

Robert
RLSmi is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Old 06-11-2007, 05:33 PM #5
jeanb's Avatar
jeanb jeanb is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: sonoran desert
Posts: 1,352
15 yr Member
jeanb jeanb is offline
Senior Member
jeanb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: sonoran desert
Posts: 1,352
15 yr Member
Thumbs up I have hypertension

Jerry & Robert,

I do have mild hypertension. So after i heard about this at the PAN Forum in February, I contacted my neurologist (a lovely and caring person). I sent her the info and asked her if she would prescribe this for me. She said she would.

I've been taking it about 2 months now. No cure for me yet (though - i am ever hopeful). No change in my symptoms. My other meds remain the same.

This is not in clinical trial - just one parkie with mild hypertension hoping that this will work for her like it works on rats! I'm going to stick with this for a year.

I guess you could say I'm taking it off label for PD but 'as directed' for hypertension. I do not know how it would affect someone who does not have hypertension.

best,
__________________
Jean B

This isn't the life I wished for, but it is the life I have. So I'm doing my best.
jeanb is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Old 06-11-2007, 06:20 PM #6
geraldo geraldo is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Washington state
Posts: 55
15 yr Member
geraldo geraldo is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Washington state
Posts: 55
15 yr Member
Default

Jean,
So, your another W/R. I have found that isradipine is made in several strengths from 2mg to 10mg/er. Just for the sake of science in true w/r form,would you share what dosage are you taking and what are your PD meds and dosage?
jerry
geraldo is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Old 06-11-2007, 07:27 PM #7
jeanb's Avatar
jeanb jeanb is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: sonoran desert
Posts: 1,352
15 yr Member
jeanb jeanb is offline
Senior Member
jeanb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: sonoran desert
Posts: 1,352
15 yr Member
Book Jerry -

(What does W/R mean?)

My PD meds:

Isradipine 2.5mg capsule 2X day
Mirapex .25mg 2X day
Stalevo 100 2X day
Azilect 1.0 1X day

Best,
__________________
Jean B

This isn't the life I wished for, but it is the life I have. So I'm doing my best.
jeanb is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Old 06-11-2007, 08:37 PM #8
geraldo geraldo is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Washington state
Posts: 55
15 yr Member
geraldo geraldo is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Washington state
Posts: 55
15 yr Member
Default

jean,
Thanks for the med info. W/R was my attempt at short hand for what many on this forum refer to someone who is willing to test various unused drugs (off label) or supplements on themselves for the benefit of others-----WHITE RATS. Hope I didn't offend------
jerry
geraldo is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Parkinson's: another look. Is Parkinson's disease caused by a bacteria?" rd42 Parkinson's Disease 5 12-13-2011 12:37 PM
The Parkinson's Institute...New studies link the environment to Parkinson's disease Stitcher Parkinson's Disease 0 04-05-2007 04:09 PM
Insomnia in Parkinson's Disease Stitcher Parkinson's Disease 0 12-01-2006 02:41 PM


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:25 PM.

Powered by vBulletin • Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

vBulletin Optimisation provided by vB Optimise v2.7.1 (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
 

NeuroTalk Forums

Helping support those with neurological and related conditions.

 

The material on this site is for informational purposes only,
and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment
provided by a qualified health care provider.


Always consult your doctor before trying anything you read here.