PEORIA: New Therapy Offers Parkinson's Relief

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Peoria Journal Star, IL 

New therapy offers Parkinson's relief
June 29, 2003

PEORIA - Inflammation may play a role in the progression of Parkinson's 
disease, linking it to other brain disorders,
such as Alzheimer's disease. But a new therapy - deep brain stimulation - 
offers relief from Parkinson's symptoms,
researchers said at a seminar Saturday.

"So what is Parkinson's disease? We don't know what causes it," said Paul 
Carvey, professor of neurological sciences
and pharmacology at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago.

Carvey is researching the causes, however, and may have found some.

He spoke to more than 50 people at the University of Illinois College of 
Medicine at Peoria. The medical seminar was
part of the "Shake, Rattle & Roll" fund-raiser weekend for Parkinson's, which 
includes a walk at noon today along the
city's riverfront followed by speakers and a jazz concert.

Carvey and Dr. Michael Rezak, of Glenbrook and Evanston hospitals where deep 
brain stimulation is taking place, offered
new hope for Parkinson's sufferers, including many in the audience.

"In the next four or five years, we will make significant advances in 
understanding the role of inflammation in the
progressive nature of the disease," Carvey said.

"If you can treat inflammation or neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease, you 
can apply that to Alzheimer's and ALS,"
he said.

If people with a risk for Parkinson's can be identified before symptoms occur 
and the disease's progression is stopped,
"this is a cure," he said.

Carvey has shown that offspring from a pregnant rat with a common bacterial 
infection that affects 11 percent of all
human pregnancies are born with lower than normal numbers of dopamine cells in 
the brain. They can function but are at
risk for Parkinson's.

When those rats are exposed to very low levels of common pesticides, including 
the "natural" pesticide rotenone, they
lose more brain cells and develop symptoms of Parkinson's. The incidence is 
higher in male rats, as it is in humans, he
said.

The infection and pesticides trigger inflammation, he said, then "ongoing, 
progressive inflammation leads to more
dopamine loss."

Common medications such as ibuprofen-type drugs can control inflammation, 
offering a new way to stop the progressive
decline of brain cells, he said.

Rezak, a physician and former Bradley University graduate student, described 
deep brain stimulation, recently approved
for Medicare patients. A device with four electrodes is implanted in the brain 
in a precise location affecting the
uncontrolled movement that characterizes Parkinson's disease. Electrical 
impulses go to the site, controlling the
movements.

The $100,000 surgery is suitable for patients for whom drugs have stopped 
working, he said. The device can be removed
if a true cure is found.

The surgery is not yet available in Peoria, said Dr. Jai Kumar, clinical 
associate professor of neurology at the
medical college.

Rezak's patient, Ralph Herbest, who lives in the Chicago area, said he had the 
surgery only two weeks ago. "I feel like
going golfing," he said.

Pat Flaherty, 65, of Peoria, a retired minister, said he received the procedure 
nearly two years ago in Kansas City
after suffering from Parkinson's for 18 years. "Without this I would be in bed 
somewhere on medication," he said.

Perry Cohen of Washington, D.C., a Parkinson's sufferer who is director of the 
Parkinson Pipeline Project to expedite
medical discoveries to patients, is a patient representative to the U.S. Food 
and Drug Administration and served on the
panel that approved the deep brain stimulation surgery.

The seminar was impressive, he said, especially the information on 
inflammation. "I was particularly impressed with
Carvey's research. It's a fresh approach, very thorough and promising."

Carol Walton, executive director of The Parkinson's Alliance of Princeton, New 
Jersey, said funding for research is
critical. The National Institutes for Health has been allotted only a 2.5 
percent increase in the next federal budget,
she said.

"We want 10 percent. You can't lay off people and stop these programs." She 
urged the audience to call members of
Congress.

SOURCE: The Peoria Journal Star, IL 


* * *

----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn