Possible prevention for Parkinson’s?

An American research team have discovered a new approach to Parkinson’s that could revolutionise treatment of this debilitating neurodegenerative condition.

Silverman and Surmeier published their findings this week in Nature Communications.  They hope that with time, Parkinson’s patients could see a pharmacological halt to their deterioration, rather than the short-lived relief that is currently available.

Parkinson’s affects 120,000 people in the UK.  Its exact cause is still unknown, as it is thought that there are both genetic and environmental components.   In the Parkinsonian brain, neurons that produce dopamine in the basal ganglia start to die.  The fall in brain dopamine leads to characteristic symptoms of tremor, rigidity and slowed movement.

The current drug of choice, L DOPA, provides relief for patients by temporarily altering brain chemistry.  Once across the blood-brain-barrier, L-DOPA is converted to dopamine to replenish the brain’s failing production.  This makes symptoms manageable. However L-DOPA has some unpleasant side-effects and stops working within five years as the brain deteriorates further.   Sufferers then find that their symptoms return and they become increasingly incapacitated, eventually requiring full-time care.

Surmeier and Silverman’s approach is an innovative one in that they are targeting the cause rather than alleviating symptoms.  Surmeier found the reason that dopamine neurons die – there is a toxic influx of calcium through the Cav1.3 channel on the cell membrane.   The team of Northwestern scientists then succeeded in finding a class of molecules that blocks the channel, after 60 000 failures.  Graduate students Kang and Cooper tested their new compound in the mouse brain. It is extremely selective for the channel and there were no adverse reactions. As Surmeier put it, ‘the drug relieved stress on cells’.

If this compound were effective in humans, it could be administered in the early stages of Parkinson’s, preventing further cell death and stopping the progression of the disease.  Clinical trials in humans will reveal if this pioneering approach is effective.