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Strategies & Market Trends : Stock Watcher's Thread / Pix of the Week (POW) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stock Watcher who wrote (1602)	1/31/1999 11:13:00 PM
From: SteelerStu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52051

SW --- interested in this one ????? CEGE QW - here is the MSNBC preview::: WE'VE SEEN Pope John Paul II suffer its symptoms, as well as Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox. Parkinson's disease, which afflicts one million people in this country alone, is a progressive brain disorder that can have devastating effects, causing muscles to shake or freeze. Research published today, which was conducted in mice specially bred to exhibit Parkinson's symptoms, is a radical and promising new approach to treatment: a gene therapy technique used directly on the brain via injections. “We corrected a problem in their brains by just delivering a single gene which produces a chemical which has been absent in the mouse's brain,” says Mark Szczypka, a researcher from the University of Washington, and one of the authors of the study published in the journal Neuron. STIMULATING DOPAMINE PRODUCTION In effect, researchers injected the mice with genes that stimulated the production of a brain chemical, or neurotransmitter, known as levodopa, a substance the mice are unable to manufacture on their own. Levodopa is a precursor of another chemical known as dopamine, which is lacking in the brains of human Parkinson's patients and in the brains of the mice in the study. After the single injection, the mice resumed dopamine production and were able to function normally. Without dopamine, the mice would freeze. Placed on top of a pole, they could not move. Normal mice shimmy right down. The therapy was delivered using an amazing tool — a simple virus that usually causes lung infections. The therapy was delivered using an amazing tool — a simple virus that usually causes lung infections. But working with Szczypka's group, researchers at a biotechnology company called CELL GENESYS based in Foster City Calif., altered the virus using genetic engineering techniques so that it stimulates the production of the missing dopamine, rather than causing an infection. Researchers say the treatment works well with just the single injection and that it could work well in humans some day. For example, gene therapies delivered via injection could eliminate the stomach problems that Parkinson's patients often experience when taking their medication orally. “Parkinson's patients often have nausea associated with the drug. By doing this you could do away with side effects and in addition you could take the patient off the regular doses that they have to take,” says Szczypka. ADVANCING TECHNOLOGY Szczypka also says that other gene therapy techniques which employ modified viruses could also help determine why brain cells die, producing Parkinsonian symptoms. “Then you might be able to intervene in a patient that has early signs of Parkinson's. And if you then treat with a virus that protects those cells you might be able to cure the disease,” says Szczypka. When will gene therapy become a cure or a treatment for people with Parkinson's? Experts say it will take years and many more experiments. But the dream is that the gene therapy will one day allow even people with advanced Parkinson's disease to regain their health. “I think that the technology is advancing. And the fact that we've been able to rescue these mice shows that viruses can be effective. And I think that's an important step,” says Szczypka.