patrick.net

@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.

In an early clinical trial in humans, the researchers used an existing drug to shift a population of white blood cells from a destructive mode to a protective state that can help defend against brain injury.

While the drug is sometimes used in patients receiving chemotherapy, it has not been used previously in Parkinson’s.

Not only did the researchers document the shift through blood tests, molecular studies and brain imaging, but they also saw preliminary evidence of improved motor skills in several patients who received the treatment, including a reduction in the disease’s characteristic tremors and improvements in tasks such as buttoning a shirt.

Currently, drugs and other treatments can be used to fight symptoms, but the effects generally give way to the disease in the long run.
***
“It’s new, it’s exciting, and the mechanism is designed to affect the disease rather than treat symptoms,” said Dr. Howard Gendelman, chairman of UNMC’s pharmacology and experimental neuroscience department.

Gendelman and R. Lee Mosley, a professor of pharmacology and experimental neuroscience and head of UNMC’s movement disorders research laboratory, led the study, a report on which appeared Thursday in the Nature Research journal npj Parkinson’s disease.
***
Gendelman said the researchers wouldn’t start a new study for a year or more, after they’ve reviewed data and improved drug formulation and administration.
***
Gendelman said a group of researchers from Taiwan published similar results last week, further validating the Nebraska team’s work. The Taiwanese group studied four patients but followed them for two years. At least eight other research groups around the world are pursuing the pathway in a variety of conditions.
***
he collaborators recently received renewed funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation to further the work, focusing on a second-generation product that offers an improvement in the drug and a more patient-friendly route of administration — oral, rather than injection.

But Gendelman stressed that the basic work is homegrown in Nebraska, dating back roughly 20 years, and has been helped along by funding from local individuals and groups.
***
The study involved 20 Parkinson’s patients — 10 received the drug, 10 got a placebo. Neither the patients nor the researchers knew who was receiving the drug and who was not. The researchers also studied 17 people who did not have Parkinson’s, known as controls, for comparison.

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.

"A Confused Immune System Could Be Behind Parkinson's Disease
***
"Our findings show that two fragments of alpha-synuclein, a protein that accumulates in the brain cells of people with Parkinson's, can activate the T cells involved in autoimmune attacks," said Sulzer.

So it seems as if T-cells might be fooled into thinking the body's dopamine producing brain cells are foreign due to a build-up of alpha-synculein, and somehow attacking them.

Genetic studies have also shown Parkinson's disease is linked with a variation in genes active in the immune response, adding further reason to suspect mistaken T-cells are responsible for the destruction of the brain's nerve cells.

"It remains to be seen whether the immune response to alpha-synuclein is an initial cause of Parkinson's, or if it contributes to neuronal death and worsening symptoms after the onset of the disease," said researcher Alessandro Sette from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology.

In recent years, the evidence has been mounting linking the gut with Parkinson's disease, with gut bacteria stirring up trouble, and possibly affecting the brain via the vagus nerve."

"The rogue protein behind Parkinson’s disease may also protect your gut

The hallmark brain damage in Parkinson’s disease is thought to be the work of a misfolded, rogue protein that spreads from brain cell to brain cell like an infection. Now, researchers have found that the normal form of the protein—α-synuclein (αS)—may actually defend the intestines against invaders by marshaling key immune cells. But chronic intestinal infections could ultimately cause Parkinson’s, the scientists suggest, if αS migrates from overloaded nerves in the gut wall to the brain.

“The gut-brain immune axis seems to be on a cusp of an explosion of new insights, and this work offers an exceptionally exciting new hypothesis,” says Charles Bevins, an expert in intestinal immunity at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved with the study."

anonymous says

curious2 - Not sure if you have read this yet.

Thanks - yes - yet another argument against the "low fat" diet craze.

VERY interesting study "is currently recruiting participants" with early PD (diagnosed within the last three years) to test an already available dietary supplement called inosine:

"A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial to determine whether oral inosine dosed to moderately elevate serum urate (from ≤5.7 mg/dL to 7.1-8.0 mg/dL) over 2 years slows clinical decline in early PD."

Centers include UCSF.

Unlike some other studies, I would definitely recommend anyone eligible consider enrolling in this particular study. The people involved are highly reputable, the drug is already widely used for other purposes and thus has a well known safety profile, and results are due in 2020, sooner than almost anything else.

From the Michael J. Fox Foundation: "The Phase II study funding of more than $5 million was MJFF's largest single grant at that time. MJFF also supported early pre-clinical work investigating the mechanism of urate in neuroprotection and studies into the interaction of inosine with diet and with other Parkinson's medication. In addition, we are funding a sub-study within SURE-PD3 to collect biospecimen samples from participants, including plasma and DNA, for future biomarker research.

SURE-PD3 will also collect additional data from some participants using the smartphone app mPower, which uses phone sensors to track symptoms of PD. Integrating wearable technology into SURE-PD3 may bolster participant engagement and can provide researchers with greater information on how the study drug affects the progression of motor symptoms.

Individuals diagnosed with PD within the past three years who have low blood urate levels and show dopamine loss on an imaging DaTscan, among other criteria, are eligible for the SURE-PD3 trial."

It'll be interesting to see where the healthcare shitstorm ends. Seems to me that the Repubs are more interested in repealing Obamacare than in fixing it or finding a suitable alternative. With a president that is childish and vindictive this is what we're stuck with. Fuck

A small (62 people) study published August 3, 2017, in the Lancet says, "Exenatide [weekly injection] had positive effects on practically defined off-medication motor scores in Parkinson's disease, which were sustained beyond the period of exposure... At 60 weeks, off-medication scores on part 3 of the MDS-UPDRS had improved by 1·0 points (95% CI −2·6 to 0·7) in the exenatide group and worsened by 2·1 points (−0·6 to 4·8) in the placebo group, an adjusted mean difference of −3·5 points (−6·7 to −0·3; p=0·0318)."

The 2013 Michael J. Fox Foundation funding description says, "The results from this project will provide high-quality data necessary to decide whether Exenatide has useful biological effects in patients with PD. Positive results will form the platform upon which major Phase III trials can be planned and conducted to ultimately enable the regulatory authorities to judge whether the safety and tolerability and biological effects of Exenatide support its widespread use in patients with PD."

Tissue Nanotransfection (TNT) has broad potential extending far beyond Parkinson's, but so far it's only been tried in mice and pigs, so I'll comment here rather than start a new Post. The reseaerch team at Ohio State University have applied to FDA to start human trials next year.

"Tissue Nanotransfection (TNT), injects genetic code into skin cells, turning those skin cells into other types of cells required for treating diseased conditions.
***
Researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Ohio State's College of Engineering have developed a new technology, Tissue Nanotransfection (TNT), that can generate any cell type of interest for treatment within the patient's own body. This technology may be used to repair injured tissue or restore function of aging tissue, including organs, blood vessels and nerve cells.

Results of the regenerative medicine study published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

"By using our novel nanochip technology, injured or compromised organs can be replaced. We have shown that skin is a fertile land where we can grow the elements of any organ that is declining," said Dr. Chandan Sen, director of Ohio State's Center for Regenerative Medicine & Cell Based Therapies, who co-led the study with L. James Lee, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering with Ohio State's College of Engineering in collaboration with Ohio State's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.

Researchers studied mice and pigs in these experiments. In the study, researchers were able to reprogram skin cells to become vascular cells in badly injured legs that lacked blood flow. Within one week, active blood vessels appeared in the injured leg, and by the second week, the leg was saved. In lab tests, this technology was also shown to reprogram skin cells in the live body into nerve cells that were injected into brain-injured mice to help them recover from stroke.

The (free) Science Daily article excerpted above contains a link directly to the full Nature Nanotechnology article, which may require a subscription.

FDA is "currently reviewing two new Parkinson's treatments. One, from Adamas Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ADMS), called ADS-5102, is meant for levodopa-induced dyskinesia and could be approved by August 24. Acorda Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ACOR) filed for approval of an inhalable form of levodopa (branded as Inbrija) in late June, and expects to know by September whether the FDA will approve the treatment."

https://blog.cirm.ca.gov/2017/09/07/hearts-and-brains-are-center-stage-at-cirm-patient-advocate-event/
Latest Parkinson research.
Sent from my iPad

Cell replacement may play an increasing role in alleviating the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) in future. Writing in a special supplement to the Journal of Parkinson's Disease, experts describe how newly developed stem cell technologies could be used to treat the disease and discuss the great promise, as well as the significant challenges, of stem cell treatment.

The most common PD treatment today is based on enhancing the activity of the nigro-striatal pathway in the brain with dopamine-modulating therapies, thereby increasing striatal dopamine levels and improving motor impairment associated with the disease. However, this treatment has significant long-term limitations and side effects. Stem cell technologies show promise for treating PD and may play an increasing role in alleviating at least the motor symptoms, if not others, in the decades to come.

"We are in desperate need of a better way of helping people with PD. It is on the increase worldwide. There is still no cure, and medications only go part way to fully treat incoordination and movement problems," explained co-authors Claire Henchcliffe, MD, DPhil, from the Department of Neurology, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Department of Neurosurgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA; and Malin Parmar, PhD, from the Wallenberg Neuroscience Center and Lund Stem Cell Center, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. "If successful, using stem cells as a source of transplantable dopamine-producing nerve cells could revolutionize care of the PD patient in the future. A single surgery could potentially provide a transplant that would last throughout a patient's lifespan, reducing or altogether avoiding the need for dopamine-based medications."

The authors have analyzed how newly developed stem cell technologies could be used to treat PD, and how clinical researchers are moving very quickly to translate this technology to early clinical trials. In the past, most transplantation studies in PD used human cells from aborted embryos. While these transplants could survive and function for many years, there were scientific and ethical issues: fetal cells are in limited supply, and they are highly variable and hard to quality control. Only some patients benefited, and some developed side effects from the grafts, such as uncontrollable movements called dyskinesias.

Recent strides in stem cell technology mean that quality, consistency, activity, and safety can be assured, and that it is possible to grow essentially unlimited amounts of dopamine-producing nerve cells in the laboratory for transplantation. This approach is now rapidly moving into initial testing in clinical trials. The choice of starting material has also expanded with the availability of multiple human embryonic stem cell lines, as well as the possibilities for producing induced pluripotent cells, or neuronal cells from a patient's own blood or skin cells. The first systematic clinical transplantation trials using pluripotent stem cells as donor tissue were initiated in Japan in 2018.

"We are moving into a very exciting era for stem cell therapy," commented Dr. Parmar. "The first-generation cells are now being trialed and new advances in stem cell biology and genetic engineering promise even better cells and therapies in the future. There is a long road ahead in demonstrating how well stem cell-based reparative therapies will work, and much to understand about what, where, and how to deliver the cells, and to whom. But the massive strides in technology over recent years make it tempting to speculate that cell replacement may play an increasing role in alleviating at least the motor symptoms, if not others, in the decades to come."

"With several research groups, including our own centers, quickly moving towards testing of stem cell therapies for PD, there is not only a drive to improve what is possible for our patients, but also a realization that our best chance is harmonizing efforts across groups," added Dr. Henchcliffe. "Right now, we are just talking about the first logical step in using cell therapies in PD. Importantly, it could open the way to being able to engineer the cells to provide superior treatment, possibly using different types of cells to treat different symptoms of PD like movement problems and memory loss."

"This approach to brain repair in PD definitely has major potential, and the coming two decades might also see even greater advances in stem cell engineering with stem cells that are tailor-made for specific patients or patient groups," commented Patrik Brundin, MD, PhD, Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, MI, USA, and J. William Langston, MD, Stanford Udall Center, Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA, Editors-in-Chief of the Journal of Parkinson's Disease. "At the same time, there are several biological, practical, and commercial hurdles that need circumventing for this to become a routine therapy."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190214153141.htm

@curious2

Not sure if you are/were aware of this Medical Journal, "The Journal of Parkinson's Disease" which is cited in the first paragraph.

Here is the link: https://www.journalofparkinsonsdisease.com/

Kakistocracy says

"The Journal of Parkinson's Disease"

That journal (and others) describes a great, short summary on the possible links between gut and brain wrt Parkinson's:

"More and more studies are suggesting that the condition starts in the gastrointestinal system — at least for some people who have digestive symptoms years before any motor symptoms develop.

Some studies have even shown that the alpha-synuclein protein, which is abnormal in Parkinson's disease, travels from the brain to the stomach via the vagus nerve, a major component of the parasympathetic nervous system."

The summary contains links, including to this article from Finland:

"In the last two decades it has become clear that Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with a plethora of gastrointestinal symptoms originating from functional and structural changes in the gut and its associated neural structures. This is of particular interest not only because such symptoms have a major impact on the quality of life of PD patients, but also since accumulating evidence suggests that in at least a subgroup of patients, these disturbances precede the motor symptoms and diagnosis of PD by years and may thus give important insights into the origin and pathogenesis of the disease. In this mini-review we attempt to concisely summarize the current knowledge after two decades of research on the gut-brain axis in PD."

Cell transplant research is very interesting, whether IPS or fetal cells, but past attempts with fetal cells showed Parkinson's could return. I suspect that recurrence in some cases might result from residual prions traveling up the vagus nerve, or continued exposure to whatever dietary or other environmental sources caused the problem.

Parkinson's subtyping will likely illuminate significant differences between genetic, dietary, and other environmental exposures. Stem cells might work well in purely genetic cases, but the others might require addressing the environmental factors to prevent recurrence.

curious2 says

when R's are in charge, they call stem cell research "immoral" (though they launch phony wars killing thousands of people including children)

Democrats are responsible for starting, if not more wars than at least as many wars as Republicans:

WWI Woodrow Wilson

WWII FDR

Korean war Eisenhower

Vietnam war Kennedy/Johnson

Middle East conflict Bush, continued under Obama

Trump is trying to end the Middle East conflict

If Democrats did not start more wars, you can say they are at least just as culpable.

This thread is about Parkinson's Disease research.