Parkinson's protection?Parkinson's protection? Low doses of a chemical known asMPTP cause brain damage and movement disorders that closely match Parkinson's disease in both humans and monkeys (SN: 3/1/86, p. 132). Robert J. D'Amato of Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University, mainly at Baltimore, Md. Johns Hopkins in 1867 had a group of his associates incorporated as the trustees of a university and a hospital, endowing each with $3.5 million. Daniel C. in Baltimore and his colleagues now report that conventional doses of the antimalarial drug chloroquine chloroquine /chlo·ro·quine/ (klor´o-kwin) an antiamebic and anti-inflammatory used in the treatment of malaria, giardiasis, extraintestinal amebiasis, lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis; used also as the hydrochloride and partially protect monkeys from MPTP-induced symptoms. "Conceivably, chloroquine or a similardrug could be used to retard the progression of Parkinson's disease in human patients,' they conclude in the May 28 NATURE. The investigators propose that chloroquineinterferes with the binding of a poisonous MPTP MPTP 1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine, analogs MTMP, PEPAP Neurology A potent neurotoxin–which has an effect much like Meperidine or Demerol—that acts on neuromelanin, producing parkinsonism Clinical Bradykinesia, muscular rigidity, resting by-product--MPP -- to cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine dopamine (dōp`əmēn), one of the intermediate substances in the biosynthesis of epinephrine and norepinephrine. See catecholamine. dopamine One of the catecholamines, widely distributed in the central nervous system. in a small area of the brain known as the substantia nigra. In a previous report, "D'Amato and his co-workers suggested the MPP (Massively Parallel Processing or Massively Parallel Processor) A multiprocessing architecture that uses up to thousands of processors. Some might contend that a computer system with 64 or more CPUs is a massively parallel processor. sticks only to dopamine cells containing the pigment neuromelanin. Nerve terminals that channel MPP out of neuromelanin-bearing dopamine cells in other brain structures are scarce around the substantia nigra. The proposed neuromelanin connection,while not endorsed by all MPTP researchers, is supported by the new data. Three monkeys were injected with MPTP on four consecutive days, three monkeys received chloroquine for 12 days before and 10 days after MPTP injections, and three monkeys received chloroquine for 24 days before and 10 days after the injections. MPTP alone produced tremors, muscle rigidity, hunched posture and decreased movement within five days. But five of the six chloroquine-treated monkeys displayed significantly fewer parkinsonian symptoms. The five "protected' animals, particularly those given the longer pretreatment pretreatment, n the protocols required before beginning therapy, usually of a diagnostic nature; before treatment. pretreatment estimate, n See predetermination. , retained more neuromelanin-containing cells in the substantia nigra and showed a much smaller dopamine reduction in two other brain areas implicated in Parkinson's disease, say the researchers. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion