ARTICLE: Test for early Parkinson's

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

BBC NEWS
Thursday, 7 August, 2003, 10:48 GMT 11:48 UK

Test for early Parkinson's

Brain scientists believe they may have found a way to detect the earliest signs 
that a patient is developing
Parkinson's disease.

They hope that finding will help identify targets for future drugs to tackle 
the cause of the disease.

The research, carried out at Imperial College London, centres around a type of 
immune cell called a microglial cell.

These are part of the body's method of fighting off infections within the brain 
and central nervous system.

When activated, they cause inflammation, which scientists already believe is 
linked to the cell death which causes
Parkinson's.

Scientists are trying to find out whether the cells are the underlying cause of 
Parkinson's, or simply accelerate the
disease.

Radioactive injection

Researchers think that if they could measure the level of activation of 
microglial cells, they could both confirm that
they are causing a problem - and perhaps in future use it as a test to confirm 
the presence of the disease in patients
with the most subtle symptoms.

By detecting it in the early stages of the disease we hope to be able to give 
patients suitable treatments that will
delay its development
Professor David Brooks, Imperial College
The Imperial team engineered a mildly radioactive chemical called a "tracer", 
which has the ability to bind to active
and inflamed microglial cells.

They injected this into the brain of 60 patients already showing the outward 
signs of early Parkinsonism.

They progress of the tracer was then monitored using a brain scanner.

Their results confirmed that it was possible to track microglial cell activity 
in this way, and the trial is now being
extended so that the same patients can be scanned again to see if the changing 
scans correllate with changing physical
symptoms.

Detecting the disease before symptoms appear would be impractical, however - it 
would involve carrying out highly
expensive scans on hundreds of thousands of people.

Step forward

Parkinson's Disease is caused by the death of cells in the brain which produce 
the chemical dopamine.

This chemical helps the brain produce smooth muscular movements, and its 
absence can lead to gradually worsening tremor
in the hands and arms, stiffness and slow movement.

Drug treatments can alleviate these symptoms, but there is currently no cure.

Professor David Brooks, who led the research, said: "We are very pleased with 
our results.

"Inflammation in the brain may be causing this already debilitating condition 
to worsen at a quicker rate than it would
otherwise.

"By detecting it in the early stages of the disease we hope to be able to give 
patients suitable treatments that will
delay its development.

"We hope that it would even allow some of the damaged cells to produce the much 
needed dopamine again - which would
really help the patient."

SOURCE: The BBC NEWS, UK


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