Current research on Huntington's

Research is underway to find disease-modifying drugs and new treatments for the symptoms of Huntington's disease.

Exciting progress has been made in identifying potential ways of slowing down or halting the disease. For example switching off the faulty gene that causes Huntington's disease.

There some people who have inherited the disease but have not yet developed symptoms. This group of people who are unaware they carry the disease, may have had children and passed on the disease without realising. Hence it's important to get tested if you have a family history of the disease.

Referencing

http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm I structured my bibliography according to the referencing examples in this website. It showed different referencing layouts for information obtained from different sources such as textbooks and websites.

What research advances have the Brain Research Centre made in Parkinson's?

This website http://www.brain.ubc.ca/research/neurodegeneration.htm specifically talks about 2 of the diseases that I'm doing: Parkinson's and ALS. I might add some more information that i find from this website in my essay, for example what research advances the Brain Research Centre has made in Parkinson’s disease 

New model for ALS

I found another website (http://www.news-medical.net/news/20110812/New-model-for-amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis.aspx) that talks about the development of a new model for ALS


The researchers derived astrocytes (cells) from patients of ALS, and found that the cells secrete toxic factors which cause nerve cells to degenerate. A similar mechanism has been found in mouse models of ALS. Researchers also found from further experiments that inflammatory responses may play a role in this toxicity. For example they analysed 84 genes involved in inflammation, and found that 35-60 percent of the genes showed increased activity in ALS astrocytes compared to controls.


The results of other experiments suggested the need for further investigation of SOD1 and astrocytes as targets for therapy.(23)

(24)

Cell recycling system damaged in ALS

A breakdown of a recycling system in cells appears to be the underlying cause of ALS (most common form of motor neuron disease)


The breakdown occurs in the recycling system in the nerve cells of the spinal cord and the brain. In order to function properly, the protein building blocks in the cells need to be recycled. But in ALS, that system is broken. The cell cannot repair or maintain itself and becomes severely damaged.

The scientists found a protein, ubiquilin2, which should be directing the recycling process, does not work in people with ALS. This means the damaged proteins accumulate in nerve cells of the spinal cord and brain, causing their degeneration.


The researchers, from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, found this breakdown occurs in all three forms of ALS.


It's been known for some time that the waste and recycling system in motor neurons is damaged, but this is the first time that there has been direct proof. Now researchers can test for drugs that would regulate this protein pathway, so it functions as it should in a normal state. This discovery provides researchers with an exciting new avenue to explore as they search for an effective treatment.(22)

Research programme focusing on Parkinson's disease

Three new research programmes focusing on neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neuron disease, have received major funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council.

Professors Nicholas Wood, John Hardy and Anthony Schapira at the Institute of Neurology, London, outline the changing face of Parkinson's disease research and their hopes to fully understand its causes and effects at the genetic level.

Another study describes the dramatic improvement in Parkinson’s disease symptoms following intranasal delivery of stem cells to rat brains: successful intranasal delivery of stem cells to the brains of rats with Parkinson’s disease yielded significant improvement in motor function (movement) and reversed the dopamine deficiency characteristic of the disease.

The promising findings, reported in Rejuvenation Research, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, highlight the potential for a non-invasive approach to cell therapy delivery in Parkinson’s disease, a safer and effective alternative to surgical transplantation of stem cells. In this groundbreaking study, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) delivered via the nose preferentially migrated to the brain and were able to survive for at least 6 months. Substantial improvement in motor function, up to 68% of normal, was reported in the MSC treated rat model of Parkinson’s disease. Levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine were significantly higher in affected rat brain regions exposed to MSCs compared to the non-treated brain regions.(21)

Mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs, are multipotent stem cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types, including: osteoblasts (bone cells), chondrocytes (cartilage cells) and adipocytes (fat cells) (17)

But there are still ethical issues on usage of embryonic stem cells, which are the most useful stem cells for treatment. The problem is that when stem cells are obtained from living human embryos, the harvesting of such cells necessitates destruction of the embryos.

In contrast to research on embryonic stem cells, non-embryonic stem cell research has already resulted in numerous instances of actual clinical benefit to patients. For example, patients suffering from: Parkinson’s disease, autoimmune diseases, stroke, anemia, cancer, immunodeficiency and corneal damage experienced improved function following administration of therapies derived from adult or umbilical cord blood stem cells. The long-held belief that non-embryonic stem cells are less able to differentiate into multiple cell types or be sustained in the laboratory over an extended period of time rendering them less medically-promising than embryonic stem cells, has been repeatedly challenged by experimental results that have suggested otherwise. (19)

Progress in stem cell research for treating Parkinson's

The main treatments for Parkinson's are drugs that aim to control the symptoms by increasing the levels of dopamine that reach the brain and stimulating the parts of the brain where dopamine works. Some patients have wires surgically implanted into their brains that deliver electrical pulses to alleviate movement problems.

For around a decade, scientists have been trying to re-grow nerve cells lost in

neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) from stem cells. However experiments in which dopamine neurons were created from mouse stem cells have not been successfully reproduced in humans. There have also been safety concerns, with signs that dopamine neurons developed from human stem cells can trigger the growth of tumours. As a result, clinical trials in humans have yet to start.

Dr Studer and his colleagues, whose work is published in the journal Nature, found the specific chemical signals required to nudge stem cells into the right kind of dopamine-producing brain cells.

In a series of experiments, the team gave animals six injections of more than a million cells each, to parts of the brain affected by Parkinson's. The neurons survived, formed new connections and restored lost movement in mouse, rat and monkey models of the disease, with no sign of tumour development. The improvement in monkeys was crucial, as the rodent brains required fewer working neurons to overcome their symptoms. This study has shown for the first time that it is possible to transplant nerve cells that work from human stem cells. (19)

Dopamine-producing nerve cells derived from embryonic stem cells and implanted into the brain of a monkey with Parkinson's disease

A discussion with my supervisor

I spoke with my supervisor and took notes of things I have to do. She  advised me to keep a record of my progress on my blog and that I should try to find information about the diseases from a variety of sources. So I might find a film or documentary based on one of the nuerodegenerative conditions to watch.

Working on essay and presentation

I'm working on my essay and presentation. So far I've only written about one neurodegenerative disease. which I might show my supervisor to discuss and improve on it. My presentation has to be about 10 minutes long. I've just prepared an introduction. And according to my google calendar I have to hand in my 1st essay draft to my supervisor on the 15th of December.