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Dr. Bastiaan R. Bloem of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands thought he had seen it all in his years of caring for patients with Parkinson’s disease. But the 58-year-old man who came to see him recently was a total surprise. The man had had Parkinson’s disease for 10 years, and it had progressed until he was severely affected. Parkinson’s, a neurological disorder in which some of the brain cells that control movement die, had made him unable to walk. He trembled and could walk only a few steps before falling. He froze in place, his feet...

Watertown, MA—Scientists at Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI) and the University of Pennsylvania have found that combining two chemicals, one of which is the green tea component EGCG, can prevent and destroy a variety of protein structures known as amyloids. Amyloids are the primary culprits in fatal brain disorders such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's diseases. Their study, published in the current issue of Nature Chemical Biology (December 2009), may ultimately contribute to future therapies for these diseases. "These findings are significant because it is the first time a combination of specific chemicals has successfully destroyed diverse forms of amyloids...

Introducing three genes corrects motor defects in monkeys.A potential gene therapy for Parkinson's disease can correct motor deficits in monkeys without causing the jerky, involuntary movements that often accompany long-term treatments for the disease. The approach is undergoing preliminary testing in a handful of human patients, who have all shown promising signs of improvement.At present, the most common remedy for Parkinson's disease involves replacing dopamine — the neurotransmitter that is depleted in patients with the disease — by administering the dopamine precursor levodopa, or L-DOPA. Most patients initially regain near-normal motor control, but after several years on L-DOPA the majority...

Can an over-the-counter vitamin-like substance slow the progression of Parkinson's disease? Rush University Medical Center is participating in a large-scale, multi-center clinical trial in the U.S. and Canada to determine whether a vitamin-like substance, in high doses, can slow the progression of Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects about one million people in the United States. "At present, the very best therapies we have for Parkinson's can only mask the symptoms – they do not alter the underlying disease," said neurologist Dr. Katie Kompoliti, a specialist in movement disorders. "Finding a treatment that can slow the degenerative course of...

ScienceDaily (Aug. 18, 2008) — A new study conducted by researchers at Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland shows that a century-old drug, methylene blue, may be able to slow or even cure Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Used at a very low concentration – about the equivalent of a few raindrops in four Olympic-sized swimming pools of water – the drug slows cellular aging and enhances mitochondrial function, potentially allowing those with the diseases to live longer, healthier lives. A paper on the methylene blue study, conducted by Hani Atamna, PhD, and a his team at Children's, was published in...

Enlarge ImageTrouble spots. In mice infected with the H5N1 virus, deposits of phosphorylated alpha-synuclein (arrows) in dopamine neurons may be a sign of neurodegeneration. Credit: H. Jang et al., PNAS Early Edition (2009) Decades after the 1918 influenza pandemic, epidemiologists noted an uptick in the number of people with diminished mobility and other neurological symptoms reminiscent of Parkinson's disease. But despite this and other hints, the idea that viruses can trigger neurodegenerative disease has remained controversial. Now researchers report new evidence for such a link: Mice infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus lose the same dopamine-releasing neurons that...

Groundbreaking Paper Publishes Long Term Results Of A Successful Phase I Clinical Trial To Treat Parkinson's Disease Scientists announced the publication of a landmark peer-reviewed paper in the February issue of the Bentham Open Stem Cell Journal which outlines the long term results of the world's first clinical trial using autologous neural stem cells for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. According to lead author, Michel F. Levesque, MD, FRCS(C), FACS, "We have documented the first successful adult neural stem cell transplantation to reverse the effects of Parkinson's disease and demonstrated the long term safety and therapeutic effects of this approach."...

Adult Stem Cell Research Reverses Effects of Parkinson's Disease in Human Trial by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com Editor February 16, 2009 Email RSSPrint Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Scientists have published a paper in a medical journal describing the results of the world's first clinical trial using autologous neural stem cells for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. A leading bioethics watchdog says the results show more money should be put behind adult stem cells.UCLA researchers published their results in February issue of the Bentham Open Stem Cell Journal which outlines the long term results of the trial."We have documented the first...

Did Grandma seem forgetful at the holiday parties last month? It could be time to put her on a diet. Sharply reducing calories improves memory in older adults, according to one of the first studies of dietary restriction and cognitive function in humans. Research on the benefits of an extremely low-calorie diet stretches back to the 1930s, when scientists found that rats lived up to twice as long when they nibbled less than control animals. Since then, some studies with rodents and nonhuman primates have shown that this spare diet, known as calorie restriction, improves some markers of diabetes and...

Clioquinol inhibits action of the CLK1 aging gene, may alleviate Alzheimer'sRecent animal studies have shown that clioquinol – an 80-year old drug once used to treat diarrhea and other gastrointestinal disorders – can reverse the progression of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. Scientists, however, had a variety of theories to attempt to explain how a single compound could have such similar effects on three unrelated neurodegenerative disorders. Researchers at McGill University have discovered a dramatic possible new answer: According to Dr. Siegfried Hekimi and colleagues at McGill's Department of Biology, clioquinol acts directly on a protein called CLK-1, often informally...

Study finds Parkinson’s patients are more commonly lacking in the vitamin than Alzheimer’s patients or healthy peopleA vitamin D shortage is more likely to show up in people with Parkinson’s disease than in healthy people or those with Alzheimer’s disease, scientists report in the October Archives of Neurology. The study is the most recent contribution to a torrent of findings linking vitamin D deficiency with health risks. It’s well documented that such a deficiency can cause osteoporosis. Studies in recent years have also implicated a shortage of vitamin D in heart disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis, cancer and even respiratory problems....

Adult stem cell research, for the pro-life community, is ethically superior to embryonic stem cell research because it doesn't involve the destruction of human life. Scientists at Griffith University in Australia are advancing the notion that its effectiveness is superior as well. The researchers published an article on Friday in the medical journal Stem Cells showing that the use of adult stem cells may be getting closer to a cure, or at least an effective treatment, for Parkinson's. Their new studies show adult stem cells from a patient's own nose could treat their condition. The paper showed the finding that...

Breakthrough: Adult Stem Cells & Parkinson’s Great - and, for anyone following the stunning medical advances being made thanks to ADULT Stem Cell Research - unsurprising news on the Parkinson’s front. Just as numerous spinal cord injuries are being successfully treated with ASC taken from nasal cavities, it looks there sufferers of Parkinson’s Disease may be helped, too.Scientists Say Cure for Parkinson's Disease Right under Their Noses SYDNEY, Australia, June 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - New research on stem-cell therapy shows scientists have found that the cure for Parkinson’s disease may lie right under one’s nose - or rather, in it....

Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics has developed a novel stem cell therapy to treat Parkinson's Disease - using a patient's own bone marrow stem cells to produce the missing chemical that enables restoration of motor movement. The process - which successfully alleviated symptoms of Parkinson's in rats - will be tested on monkeys next year, with human clinical trials scheduled for the following year. About 1.5 million Americans have been diagnosed with Parkinson's, a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disease. Parkinson's affects those brain cells responsible for production of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that directs motor movement. Insufficient dopamine levels result in tremor, rigidity, slowness...

A study recently conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) showed for the first time that artificially created stem cells can be used to treat Parkinson’s disease. In another research project conducted at the Imperial College in London, scientists identified the source of nerve cells in the embryo. The findings of these research projects have led scientists to believe stem cells can be used in new therapies for Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson's disease (PD) is a degenerative neurological disorder that occurs when nerve cells (neurons) in an area of the brain that controls muscle movement die or become impaired. Currently,...

<p>WASHINGTON - A transplant of a man's own brain cells has treated his Parkinson's disease, clearing up the trembling and muscle rigidity that characterize the disease, researchers reported yesterday.</p> <p>The researchers believe they isolated and nurtured adult stem cells from the patient's brain, cells that they re-injected to restore normal function.</p>

My name is Michel Lévesque, and I am a physician, neuroscientist and neurosurgeon based at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. I am Associate Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at the UCLA School of Medicine and member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute. I am also the founder of NeuroGeneration, a biotechnology company pioneering autologous neural stem cell therapies, and Chairman of the Foundation for Neural Repair, a not-for-profit foundation, sponsoring translational research to accelerate human trials using neural stem cells. Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, I want to thank you for the opportunity to testify today on our...

Thank you, Chairman Brownback, for your interest in Parkinson’s Disease, in my treatment by Dr. Levesque, and in my hopes and concerns for the future. For fourteen years I’ve had Parkinson’s Disease. This irreversible disease involves the slow destruction of specialized cells in the brain, called Dopamine Neurons. By early 1991 I suffered extreme shaking of the right side of my body, stiffness in my gait and movements. After some years of medication, I developed fluctuation and poor response to Sinemet. This made daily activities needing the coordinated use of both hands hard or impossible, such as putting in contact...

Brain cells derived from human embryonic stem cells improved the condition of rats with Parkinson's-like symptoms dramatically, but the treatment caused a significant problem - the appearance of brain tumors - that scientists are now working to solve. The study is featured on the cover of the November issue of Nature Medicine. The work was reported by neurologist Steven Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Center and chief of its Division of Cell and Gene Therapy, and Neeta Roy, Ph.D., assistant professor of Neurology at Cornell's Weill Medical College. "The results are a real...

With increasing frequency, American citizens and others from around the globe are experiencing newfound freedom from disease, affliction, and infirmity. Individuals' lives are forever changed with the strengthened faith and renewed hope that arise from healed bodies and physical restoration. These seemingly miraculous cures are the result of adult stem cell treatments. Yet the debates in the popular media tend to ignore and obscure the medical breakthroughs made by adult stem cell research--success that has conspicuously eluded embryonic stem cell treatments.[1]  Adult stem cells (or, more accurately, tissue stem cells) are regenerative cells of the human body that possess the...