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Effects of Parkinson's-Disease Mutation Reversed In Cells
An anonymous reader sends this quote from a press release at Eurekalert:
"UC San Francisco scientists working in the lab used a chemical found in an anti-wrinkle cream to prevent the death of nerve cells damaged by mutations that cause an inherited form of Parkinson's disease. A similar approach might ward off cell death in the brains of people afflicted with Parkinson’s disease, the team suggested in a study reported online in the journal Cell on August 15 (abstract). ... Mutations that cause malfunction of the targeted enzyme, PINK1, are directly responsible for some cases of early-onset Parkinson’s disease. Loss of PINK1 activity is harmful to the cell’s power plants, called mitochondria, best known for converting food energy into another form of chemical energy used by cells, the molecule ATP. In Parkinson’s disease, poorly performing mitochondria have been associated with the death of dopamine-producing nerve cells in a region of the brain called the substantia nigra, which plays a major role in control of movement. Loss of these cells is a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease and the cause of prominent symptoms including rigidity and tremor. A UCSF team led by Shokat, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, used the chemical, called kinetin, to increase mutant PINK1 enzyme activity in nerve cells to near normal levels. 'In light of the fact that mutations in PINK1 produce Parkinson’s disease in humans, the finding that kinetin can speed mutated PINK1 activity to near normal levels raises the possibility that kinetin may be used to treat these patients,' Shokat said."
This is actually very exciting for me. I have a fairly advanced Lyme disease with other related diseases (protomyxzoa). I have a worry for long term health issues because Lyme is consistently linked to Parkinson's in the long run. Seeing articles like this always give me the hope I've been expecting with modern medicine and technology. Joe
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I am officially gone from
I didn't think any of that stuff actually worked. Now to rub some on my brain.....aahhhh. Soothing.
Since English isn't my mother tongue, there are times I find myself struggling to understand things others have written.
I have read, and re-read the following, which I copied from TFA:
'In light of the fact that mutations in PINK1 produce Parkinsonâ(TM)s disease in humans, the finding that kinetin can speed mutated PINK1 activity to near normal levels ...'
I dunno about you, but the more times I re-read the above the more confused I got
I do understand the gist of TFA is that the chemical "Kinetin" somehow revived the mitochondria to produce the molecule ATP, and that somehow, delayed or stopped the death of the dopamine-producing nerve cells that had been affected by either the loss of, or the mutation of the PINK1 enzyme
I still having difficulties digesting the exact meaning of the above quoted texts, though
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No time to look closer but use of dynamite plots should cause readers to doubt the authors are serious about data analysis.
And I just can't seem to find anything snarky or witty to say about it. :-( Oh Slashdot...
But if it takes the convolutions (wrinkles) out of my cerebral cortex won't I be stupider?
See this site for some of the benefits of coconut oil: (Parkinson's is mentioned)
http://m.naturalnews.com/news/039388_coconut_oil_dementia_alzheimers_disease.html
Its easy for any paper these days. Is the following info made obvious:
1) Sample size
2) Distribution of results (not just mean +- whatever)
3) Comparison of effect sizes to "reference group" data from previous studies if available
4) Discussion of the multitude of assumptions made and experiments discarded due to what has been deemed probably accidental deviations from the protocol
In other words... they don't *actually* have any good news. They're just particularly hopeful that they will.
Sounds like somebody is using a particularly optimistic phrasing in order to get funding for more research.
Not to belittle such research, but until that research actually bears real fruit, it feels to me like they are deliberately trying to mislead people into thinking that a practical cure or treatment is basically here already (even though they don't actually come right out and say so), and to me that's not any better than the conmen who travelled from village to village in the 1700's selling "snake oil".
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
What? Is that the first occurence of the chemical? I mean, the scientists just tested several cosmetics to look for a useful chemical? In the past, scientists looked for useful chemicals in plants or even designed them. Now they 'find' useful chemicals in products.
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This is not the first time that a protocol that restores energy metabolism, or protects it, has been found effective. And not just in early-onset Parkinson's. See for example the work of Birkmeyer who developed a protocol around NADH and Co-enyme Q10 (both co-enzymes active in glucose metabolism). Or the use of coconut oil (for the lauric acid contained therein) as a dietary addition to provide ketones as an alternative for glucose to energize cells: also found effective for many Alzheimers patients.
The ketogenic approach is easy to try as coconut oil is readily available. The Birkmeyer protocol requires a few supplements, in particular stablized NADH to be taken on an empty stomach.
I'm sure Michael J. Fox heard the news and started quivering in anticipation.
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Great, you just gave the anti-wrinkle cream makers a new tagline:
Removes wrinkles and reverses Parkinson's disease!
How can lyme disease be at all related to Parkinsons? Are they saying that advanced stage lyme disease has similar symptoms to parkinsons?
This article is so highly paywalled I have tried to access it from two large public research universities and neither of them has access to this yet even though they subscribe to Cell. They want the same $31.50 for the article from those universities as they want from anyone else.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Another way to raise ketones is by using a ketogenic diet (hence the name)
How close is the ketogenic diet to an Atkins style low carbohydrate diet?
to me that's not any better than the conmen who travelled from village to village in the 1700's selling "snake oil".
The con men were themselves conned. There's one snake whose oil does in fact provide some of the benefits that were claimed for snake oil: Enhydris chinensis, the Chinese water snake. But too many snake oil peddlers were under the impression that any snake would work, which is where snake oil got its bad reputation. And then there was Clark Stanley's snake oil based on a Hopi recipe, which worked (it was similar to modern capsaicin and camphor rubs) but was ruled as mislabeled because it didn't come from a snake at all.
Less talk.
Every month this sort of article comes out. Maybe they are getting close. Somebody is going to get the cure or the vaccine but today the best treatment for humans is levadopa and that drug is from the 1950s. There are lots of things that can treat PD in a mouse or a monkey but for people, not so much. Although injection of Ganglioside GM-1 had a successful clinical trial.
...isn't this exactly the sort of research that destroyed Raccoon City?