Re: Re: Fw: Putaminal GDNF Administration, Retinal Epithelial Cells Improve PD Symptoms (AAN 2002)

[Guest guest]

Belinda,

This means they MAY have found another piece of the puzzle. It MAY also mean

they have found something that will help PD patients more than Sinemet. All

of this research is hopeful for people with movement disorders.

The GDNF pump study in fact it helped five patients with PD get about a 50%

reduction in their worst symptoms of movement and dyskinesia. I am sure any

of you would appreciate that, but it is not a cure. It IS a clue as to where

to go from here. That is what scientific research is all about, imagine a

jigsaw puzzle of 100,000 pieces, this may be like finding where a block of 20

pieces goes. It IS hopeful.

The retinal pigment epithelial cell study produced much the same results on

PD patients again. Remember that these papers inform other researchers on

positive results and like the jigsaw puzzle analogy above, the whole group is

working on putting the puzzle together, so it may be like finding a small

flag at the top of the mast of a 3 mast ship. It is progress. Hopefully

this will help some other researcher try some other approach that will lead

to a final solution.

Note however, these are careful scientific studies and the patients did not

PAY for the treatment. The funding in at least one case was by a

pharmaceutical company and the reason we got to hear about it was because

pharmaceutical companies put up the money to publish the papers. So much for

the theory of Pharmaceutical companies trying to hide cures from us. That is

why I am so wary of these expensive " cures " with natural healers and fancy

doctor's offices, with no peer reviewed papers. If you have a real cure,

subject it to peer review and share it with the world. Note that the GDNF

was pumped DIRECTLY into the brain. Dopamine can NOT cross the blood brain

barrier, so infusions into the blood are suspect to me also, it MAY be

possible for the GDNF to cross the barrier and find it's way into the correct

cells, but that is not a logical assumption to me.

Note too that the " pumps " for doing this sort of thing were developed through

the space program and the ARPA program of government funded research. They

are very tiny mechanical mechanisms which are made by highly precise

unconventional machining processes. ) That was my field of research.

Yes, Belinda they have found another piece of the puzzle. But how soon it

will help MSA (or even PD) patients is unclear. We want to work on Congress

to fund research like this as much as they do for Cancer and AIDS. Congress

is NOT listening to us, as some disease areas are getting 50% increases and

NINDS is getting about an 8% increase, which is barely keeping up with

inflation.

Take care, Bill Werre