New Parkinson's drug tested at CU Denver
 

This apparently is funded by MJFF. Anyone have any background on this?

http://www.9news.com/news/local/arti...1499&catid=346


AURORA - A new study on Parkinson's disease going on in Colorado could be groundbreaking on how the disease is treated.

Dr. Curt Freed at the University of Colorado Denver's School of Medicine believes a drug normally used for a rare liver disease may slow or stop the progression of Parkinson's.

The drug, phenylbutyrate, can prevent brain deterioration in animal models of Parkinson's. In the animal study, the drug essentially turns on a gene that protects the brain.

Twelve human patients will be involved in the new study

What is interesting about this...
 

is this drug is used to treat urea disorders. I looked this up on Wiki, and found the following:

"An urea cycle disorder or urea cycle defect is a genetic disorder caused by a deficiency of one of the enzymes in the urea cycle which is responsible for removing ammonia from the blood stream. The urea cycle involves a series of biochemical steps in which nitrogen, a waste product of protein metabolism, is removed from the blood and converted to urea. Normally, the urea is transferred into the urine and removed from the body. In urea cycle disorders, the nitrogen accumulates in the form of ammonia, a highly toxic substance, and is not removed from the body.

Urea cycle disorders are included in the category of inborn errors of metabolism. There is no cure."

Now, further down, Wikki states that there are six urea cycle disorders, as follows:

"The six urea cycle disorder. There are six disorders of the urea cycle. Each is referred to by the initials of the missing enzyme.

Location Abb. Enyzme Disorder Measurements
Mitochondria NAGS N-Acetylglutamate synthetase N-Acetylglutamate synthase deficiency +Ammonia
Mitochondria CPS1 Carbamoyl phosphate synthetase I Carbamoyl phosphate synthetase I deficiency +Ammonia
Mitochondria OTC Ornithine transcarbamylase Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency +Ornithine, +Uracil, +Orotic acid
Cytosol AS Argininosuccinic acid synthetase "AS deficiency" or citrullinemia +Citrulline
Cytosol AL Argininosuccinase acid lyase "AL deficiency" or argininosuccinic aciduria (ASA) +Citrulline, +Argininosuccinic acid
Cytosol AG Arginase "Arginase deficiency" or argininemia +Arginine "

Note that three of the six are located in the mitochondria. Wikki presents this information in chart form which is much easier to read, but I could not get it to copy over that way.