Fw: Second Part

[Elizabeth Ojeda <eojeda@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

 "This will change how we treat neurodegenerative diseases," said Harris
> Gelbard, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neurology at the University of Rochester
> Medical Center. "It's a groundbreaking advance."
> 
>   The CNND has based much of its research on the premise that activation of
> two types of support cells in the brain - microglia and astrocytes - mediate
> inflammatory events that contribute to the death of neurons, the nerve cells
> in the nervous system that receive and send out electrical signals. The
> destruction of neurons is well known to lead to the development of
> neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease
> and HIV-1-associated dementia. The vaccine approach can affect the
> inflammatory brain response and at the same time increase the local
> expression of neurotrophins or nerve cell growth promoting factors in the
> brain.
> 
>   "What we have done is take an evil process (inflammation) and turned it on
> its heels," Dr. Gendelman said. "We've taken a destructive process and
> contained it."
>    Drs. Gendelman and Przedborski emphasized that although the vaccine
> protects mice against the type of cell death observed in Parkinson's
> disease, there is no guarantee it will act the same way in humans. Clinical
> trials ultimately will determine if the observations seen in mice can be
> translated and prove useful in humans with disease.
> 
>   In mice, however, the concept has shown great promise, preventing the
> progression of the disease. In their research, CNND scientists injected a
> brain protein into mice with an experimental form of Parkinson's disease.
> "The mice mounted an immune response to the brain protein that turned off
> inflammation," Dr. Gendelman said.
> 
>   The immune cells can go into brain regions that are affected during
> disease and reduce the inflammation in the area of injury, as it would
> elsewhere in the body following local infections and trauma. This may be a
> way to use the body's own defense to work towards its own repair, Dr.
> Gendelman said.
> 
>   Importantly such protective strategies eliminate the need to use more
> controversial approaches for brain repair including the use of embryonic
> stem cells and fetal cells, he said. Unlike fetal or stem cells, this
> vaccine therapy relies on harnessing the body's own immune system. "It's a
> very novel means for combating neurological diseases," Dr. Gendelman said.
> 
>   Parkinson's disease is a chronic, debilitating disease without a cure.
> There also is no preventive or restorative treatment available. In the
> United States, at least 500,000 people are believed to suffer from
> Parkinson's disease, and about 50,000 new cases are reported annually. The
> incidence is expected to increase as the average age of the population
> increases. The disorder appears to be slightly more common in men than
> women.
> 
>   The vaccine approach utilizes a compound called Copaxone or Cop-1, a Food
> and Drug Administration-approved and well-tolerated drug. Cop-1 has been
> used effectively in patients with chronic neuroinflammatory disease such as
> relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis for more than a decade. Given the
> safety record for Cop-1 and that current treatments for Parkinson's disease
> remain palliative, such a vaccination strategy represents a promising
> therapeutic avenue that can readily be used in human clinical trials, said
> Drs. Gendelman and Przedborski.
> 
>   The work was supported in part, by the National Institutes of Neurological
> Disorders and Stroke, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Alan and Marcia
> Baer Foundation, the Francis and Louis Blumkin Foundation, Inc., the Terry
> K. Watanabe Charitable Trust, the Seline Family Foundation, the Lowenstein
> Foundation, the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust, the Parkinson's Disease
> Foundation and the MDA/Wings-Over-Wall Street.

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