A Cure- When?

2007-08-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

A blogger asked why there are no cures for Alzheimer’s, Cancer, and PD-

Our knowledge of how these diseases start and progress, and thereby, how we might cure them, has advanced in the past decade, but each disease is different in mechanism and the degree of our control in the clinic. The consensus is that Parkinson’s will be cured first, and I don’t really hear anyone claiming that a cure for Alzheimer’s or a general cure for cancer is in sight.

We are fortunate that PD affects only a small area of the brain, and that the biochemistry is pretty well documented. There is accelerating progress in the cellular signaling, gene expression/enhancement, and cell replacement areas of PD research. It appears that, in a molecular domino effect, the brain cell’s ability to dispose of its obsolete proteins (proteasome pathway) gets jammed up, resulting in a pile–up of cell trash that the body eventually sees as undesirable and so mounts an autoimmune response against these neurons. The hope of course is that stem cells could repopulate and rebuild these damaged tissues. They would need to find the location, stop dividing, and form neurons, and research is showing that each of these elements is possible in isolation or in animal models. “All” that remains (lol) is to string these steps together in humans.

Alzheimer’s starts with a similar autoimmune response to a different expired protein, but it is spread over much larger portions of the brain and is therefore more difficult to remedy. Stem cell proliferation to accumulate therapeutic quantities is key.

Cancer is now regarded as the flip side of this coin in that a tumor may come from an adult stem cell that has not responded to the normal signals that restrict cell propagation (i.e. apoptosis), and so continues on to produce a mass of partially differentiated cells. The challenge here is to restore control specifically over each and every tumor cell, while allowing other adult stem cell types to continue to proliferate as needed. A cure for cancer will require complete specificity and efficacy, a much bigger challenge than PD

Eventually, we all get something, and I am relieved that my affliction (so far) is PD, rather than, say, the front bumper of a bus!

Bottom line; cures will be based on basic research that is still in progress. There's still a long way to go, but we are moving forward!

How the PDBN works

2007-06-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

The PDBN site is a catalog of blogs from people dealing with Parkinson’s
Disease. Each entry has the blog name/link and a descriptive or
excerpted sentence or two, with space for reader comments, and a five
point rating scale. You can transfer to the full blog, and post directly with
the author as usual. You can also return to the PDBN and post comments
on the network page, or continue to other pages. Note that your network
posts do NOT automatically flow back to the original blog author; while
the PDBN tries to contact them, they might be unaware of reader
comments about their blog on the blog network.

Each blog on the PDBN is assigned to one of three categories, identified
by an icon. The list of blogs is sortable using the drop-down menu in
the header bar of the blog section.

The Advisory Board does not administer the Network; like you, we try
to provide and check helpful information and links to our community.
The Internet is diffuse by design, and having Parkinson’s is an
isolating, individualized experience. There’s a lot of helpful
information on the Web; the problem is finding what you want to know
before you know what to ask! The PDBN should be a switchboard, helping
people to connect. Your comments on how to improve this process are
always welcome.

From the PDBN Advisors' Desk

A Cure- When?

How the PDBN works