patrick.net

Notable mouse research at The Buck Institute, an SFBA research facility:

"Lithium may help halt progression of Parkinson's"

"Low-Dose Lithium Reduces Side Effects From Most Common Parkinson’s Disease Treatment"

It's a long way from a mouse to a human, but interesting nonetheless.

Notable mouse research at UNC:

"The researchers [at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill] genetically modified white blood cells called macrophages to produce glial cell–derived neurotrophic factor, or GDNF, and deliver it to the brain. Glial cells provide support and protection for nerve cells throughout the brain and body, and GDNF can heal and stimulate the growth of damaged neurons.
***
In addition to delivering GDNF, the engineered macrophages can “teach” neurons to make the protein for themselves by delivering both the tools and the instructions needed: DNA, messenger RNA and transcription factor... Using immune cells avoids the body’s natural defenses. The repurposed macrophages are also able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, something most medicines cannot do. The reprogrammed cells travel to the brain and produce tiny bubbles called exosomes that contain GDNF. The cells release the exosomes, which then are able to deliver the proteins to neurons in the brain."

Full article on PLOS One:

"GDNF-Transfected Macrophages Produce Potent Neuroprotective Effects in Parkinson's Disease Mouse Model"

Three updates:

“NeuroPhage in Cambridge, Mass., is based on a simple virus called M13. This product may be able to reduce the amounts of...alpha-synuclein....”

“coffee has protective qualities against...Parkinson’s disease... drinking four or five cups of coffee daily cut risk of developing Parkinson’s Disease nearly in half compared with little or no caffeine consumption.”

"A pilot study of 12 patients given small doses of nilotinib found that movement and mental function improved in all of the 11 people who completed the six-month trial, researchers reported Saturday at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago."

"Edward Burton, MD, FRCP, Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is among a team of researchers working on a way to slow down the progression of the disease.

Dr. Burton says the finding could lead to new drugs to protect the brain from neurodegeneration.
***
Dr. Burton says a clinical trial of gene therapy in humans is only 2-3 years away."

"Biotechnology company International Stem Cell Corp. (ISCO) is authorized by the Australian government to conduct a clinical trial in patients with moderate to severe Parkinson's disease. The company's subsidiary, Cyto Therapeutics, received regulatory approval from the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA) of Australia.

In Cyto's future Phase I/IIa clinical trial, doctors will be able to insert replacement brain cells called neural precursor cells into 12 patients."

"Pioneering Neuroprotective Results Achieved in Parkinson's Disease Preclinical Studies Allows immune system to repair brain damage; results reported in Journal of Neuroscience

A team of scientists at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and Longevity Biotech, Inc. demonstrated that neuroprotection could be attained in preclinical models by a novel drug candidate that changes immune responses. The results, published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, describe the prevention of nerve cell damage in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease. Notably, the drug protected nerve cells that produce dopamine, which is the chemical responsible for agility and movement that is lost in human disease.
***
The new Longevity Biotech drug (LBT-3627) was able to change the function of these cells from killing the nerve cells to protecting them. This is especially significant for the Nebraska team, as the mechanism parallels closely the human trials nearing completion for Parkinson's patients."

I had previously commented on NeuroPhage a year ago, and they seem to be moving ahead on the schedule they had announced then:

"The Virus That Could Cure Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and More
***
The phage M13’s goal is to infect just one type of bacteria, Escherichia coli, or E. coli, which can be found in copious amounts in the intestines of mammals. Like other microorganisms, phages such as M13 have only one purpose: to pass on their genes. In order to do this, they have developed weapons to enable them to invade, take over, and even kill their bacterial hosts. Before the advent of antibiotics, in fact, doctors occasionally used phages to fight otherwise incurable bacterial infections.
***
Immunotherapy employs specially made antibodies, rather than small molecule drugs, to target the disease’s plaques and tangles. As high school students learn in biology class, antibodies are Y-shaped proteins that are part of the body’s natural defense against infection. These proteins are designed to latch onto invaders and hold them so that they can be destroyed by the immune system. But since the 1970s, molecular biologists have been able to genetically engineer human-made antibodies, fashioned to attack undesirable interlopers like cancer cells.
***
the phage’s special abilities involved a set of proteins displayed on the tip of the virus, called GP3.
***
By 2013, NeuroPhage’s researchers had tested the new compound, which they called NPT088, in test tubes and in animals, including nonhuman primates. It performed spectacularly, simultaneously targeting multiple misfolded proteins such as amyloid beta, tau, and alpha-synuclein at various stages of amyloid assembly.
***
The concept is that this antibody could be administered to patients once or twice a month by intravenous infusion for as long as necessary.
***
NeuroPhage must now navigate the FDA’s regulatory system and demonstrate that its product is safe and effective. So far, NPT088 has proved safe in nonhuman primates. But the big test will be the phase 1A trial expected to be under way this year. This first human study proposed is a single-dose trial to look for any adverse effects in healthy volunteers. If all goes well, NeuroPhage will launch a phase 1B study involving some 50 patients with Alzheimer’s to demonstrate proof of the drug’s activity. Patients will have their brains imaged at the start to determine the amount of amyloid-beta and tau. Then, after taking the drug for six months, they will be reimaged to see if the drug has reduced the aggregates below the baseline.

“If our drug works, we will see it working in this trial,” Hillerstrom says. “And then we may be able to go straight to phase 2 trials for both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.”
***
Along the way, the company will have to prove its GAIM system is superior to the competition. Currently, there are several drug and biotech companies testing products in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease, against both amyloid-beta (Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis, and Genentech) and tau (TauRx) and also corporations with products against alpha-synuclein for Parkinson’s disease (AFFiRiS and Prothena/Roche). But Solomon and Hillerstrom think they have two advantages: multi-target flexibility (their product is the only one that can target multiple amyloids at once) and potency (they believe that NPT088 eliminates more toxic aggregates than their competitors’ products)."

BTW, I don't know what psycho Disliked three (1, 2, 3) of my comments above, without explanation, but if they have some scientific objection then let them present it. Apparently, (s)he Disliked basically all of my comments over a 20-day period, and is probably some closeted Muslim whom I offended and who tried to take revenge by Disliking everything from Parkinson's research to Don Henley. Meanwhile, this thread combines links to more than 40 relevant research efforts around the world, and thus PatNet provides a more comprehensive reference on this topic than anything else I've found anywhere, with the possible exception of (and certainly Honorable Mention to) the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which finances much of the best research worldwide.

“Hopefully [uncoated graphene] will pave the way for better deep brain implants to both harness and control the brain, with higher sensitivity and fewer...side effects."

Tet3FL “Stopping disruptions in cellular 'trash removal' may guard against neurodegenerative diseases”

Stem cells “Regrowing dopaminergic neurons may lead to new therapy for Parkinson's disease”

“California-based International Stem Cell Corporation (ISCO) set to start clinical trials on 12 people with moderate to severe Parkinson's Disease...doctors will implant replacement brain cells, called neural precursor cells, into the patients' brains. It is hoped these cells will finish maturing into the kind of neurons which are destroyed by the movement disorder. The trials, which are the first to be carried out on humans, will give participants varying doses of neural stem cells. Patients will then have their neurological condition monitored for 12 months to see how their brains and bodies react.”

Dr Oyekpen fucks genetically modified goats and uses the stem cells from the aborted goat-man embryos to formulate cures for various diseases. The snake oil is just a carrier fluid for the active ingredient.

Ironman says

Dan, is that you?

Don't worry ironvagina, I'm sure your goats are organic. Plus, I heard you sucked the semen back out of the goat as a form of birth control.

@Patrick, this thread is veering off topic and into a recurring flame war that has already littered other parts of PatNet. The flames are not commercial Spam, but is there a permissible way to remove them before they hijack the thread? Free speech doesn't benefit from burying the comments about Parkinson's research under a flaming haystack of goat feed.

how about ignoring the people who are in the flame war?

then you won't see them.

i'm trying to maintain a coherent and fair set of beliefs. currently, they are like this:

1. everyone has the right to say whatever the fuck they want on patrick.net, subject only to the 5 disallowed categories as documented in the "about" link:

threats
child porn
spam
copyright violations (upon notice)
personally identifying information

2. everyone also has the right to ignore people they do not want to hear from

Thanks - for a while there was an option for the user who posted a new thread to deleted comments from it, and for a while those comments went to a different thread for deleted comments. I could start Ignoring people but I would miss their other comments. People have strengths and weaknesses, and everyone is imperfect. Ignore vs Unignore seems too binary when talking about something as complex as a person.

allowing deletion of comments felt like it violated belief number 1 above: "everyone has the right to say whatever the fuck they want on patrick.net"

it just seems too much like censorship to actually delete a comment.

rando says

on patrick.net"

Maybe a "move" feature would help, as in "move this comment to a more appropriate thread," e.g. the flame war thread.

ok, maybe it should be possible to mark things as "off topic"

curious2 says

@Patrick, this thread is veering off topic

Sorry I deleted my post, it was half serious btw.

Thanks - I hadn't objected to your comment, which I saw was related to Parkinson's research. Subsequent comments went further astray.

Regarding stem cells, research is moving away from embryonic stem (ES) cells and towards cells grown in laboratories, including induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells made by scraping adult cells from a patient's skin and inducing them to produce stem cells. The iPS technology was first proved in 2007, and it is now reportedly easier to produce stem cells in a lab than to obtain them from fetal tissue. Meanwhile, studies of patients who had transplants using small needles to the brain have shown the transplanted cells do well, improving patients' symtoms markedly. (Other transplants to the brain had used larger needles, which were less successful. Some providers sell injections to the bloodstream, but they have not yet proved efficacy.) The ES cells were controversial even among patients, so iPS is becoming the new standard.

The iPS technology has huge potential for replacing whole organs, too: within around a decade, a patient needing a new kidney might be able to grow one from his own skin cells.

“Aggregation of α-synuclein contributes to the formation of Lewy bodies and neurites, the pathologic hallmarks of Parkinson disease (PD) and α-synucleinopathies...hyperactivity of the nonreceptor tyrosine kinase c-Abl critically regulates α-synuclein–induced neuropathology...deletion of the gene encoding c-Abl reduced α-synuclein aggregation, neuropathology, and neurobehavioral deficits...selective inhibition of c-Abl may be neuroprotective.”

Patrick,
Comments aren't the problem,it's the commenters. lol

Statin Use Linked to Increased Parkinson's Risk

rando says

1. everyone has the right to say whatever the fuck they want on patrick.net, subject only to the 5 disallowed categories as documented in the "about" link:

threats

child porn

spam

copyright violations (upon notice)

personally identifying information

So national security secrets are ok then, right?

Dan8267 says

So national security secrets are ok then, right?

If you've got some, go for it. The publicity would be fantastic.

Statins don't treat people, they treat a test result that makes people paranoid.

They may, in fact, be more harmful than any good they do. Nontheless, in men with bad cholesterol who have parents who died young of heart disease, they may have some good placebo effect.

YesYNot says

Plus, I heard you sucked the semen back out of the goat as a form of birth control.

the only comment worth reading in this entire boring nerd thread.

93b3 says

he has the cure to all manner of diseases....

@Patrick, the spam/delete function seems to have been removed.

2de6 says

this herbal clinic have successful parkinson's disease herbal treatment and treatment for other list of terminal diseases....

@Patrick, the same spammer seems to have returned with a similar User name...

Ironman says

but I'll delete my two posts to make you happy and keep your conversation on topic!

This is patnet.
DAMN SNOWFLAKES!
REPOST NOW! or buy them a crying towel.

Let me keep it on topic
Parkinson's Disease, CAN"T PAY CASH? FAILURES!

...the lowest common denominator strikes again. "This is why we can't have nice things."

Thanks, spammer nuked.

rando says

Dan8267 says

So national security secrets are ok then, right?

If you've got some, go for it. The publicity would be fantastic.

Trump doesn't actually exist. The entire election was staged. America hasn't had an actual election since 1856. The Know-Nothing Party has been ruling as a monarchy ever since then, simply faking elections to keep the general population from revolting. Over the past century and a half, the real rulers have gotten board and tried to entertain themselves by making politics more and more ridiculous to see if the public catches on. Their joke has grown to ridiculous proportions.

In actuality, Trump is a Max-Headroom-like A.I. designed to entertain people as a buffoon. The Electoral College, which has been stoned since 1963, recoded him to run for president as a goof and forgot to terminate the process. They are all passed out right now, but when the munchies set in, I suspect they will hold an emergency "election" and Shia LaBeouf will be elected.

Bonnie says

AT) gmail (DOT) com

@Patrick, the Parkinson's spammer has returned...

"Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center have reached a new milestone in their efforts to harness the immune system to slow or halt the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

The researchers followed the patients for six months — two months before starting treatment, two months on treatment and two months after treatment ended. Patients generally tolerated the drug well, although some had mild to moderate side effects."

"Doxycycline Prevents Nerve Cell Damage in Mice with Parkinson’s"

No drug is yet proven and approved to slow the progression of Parkinson's Disease. Isradipine is approved for other purposes and is currently in stage III trials regarding Parkinson's Disease. Doxycycline is also approved for other purposes but has yet to begin clinical trials for Parkinson's disease. Physical exercise is probably the best known way to slow the progression of Parkinson's Disease, but it does not work perfectly, and many patients have other problems that limit physical exercise.

"Use of statins may speed up the onset of Parkinson's disease symptoms in people who are susceptible to the disease, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers."

Of course, statins continue to get infinite subsidies, even after they don't show much benefit, while "there is no money" for research.

MellyRandy says

the disease is totally reversed!! Visit there website

@Patrick, the Parkinson's spammer has returned. I do wish PatNet had a link to delete specific comments or move them to an "off topic" thread.