R. Loch Macdonald, M.D., Ph.D., F.R.C.S.(C), F.A.A.N.S., F.A.C.S. Keenan Endowed Chair in Surgery Head, Division of Neurosurgery St. Michael's Hospital Professor of Surgery, University...
MedicalResearch.com: Interview with Alice Chen-Plotkin, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Neurology
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Parkinson's disease (PD) is an incurable neurodegenerative disease. Many neurons die, but the neurons that make dopamine (dopaminergic neurons) are particularly vulnerable. We think that the disease actually starts well before the time when people show clinical symptoms. We were therefore interested in finding proteins from the blood that correlated with better or worse dopaminergic neuron integrity. Since it's hard to access the dopaminergic neurons directly, we looked at a tracer that labels the ends of the dopaminergic neurons in people who do not have Parkinson's disease but are at high risk for developing it, and we also looked at the age at onset of PD in people who are already symptomatic. Screening just under 100 different proteins from the blood, we found that higher plasma levels of apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1) were correlated with better tracer uptake in the people who did not yet have PD, and with older ages at onset in the people who already had PD. These data suggest that plasma ApoA1 may be a marker for PD risk, with higher levels being relatively protective.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kalipada Pahan, Ph.D.
The Floyd A. Davis, M.D., Endowed Chair of Neurology
Professor
Departments of Neurological Sciences, Biochemistry and Pharmacology
Rush University Medical Center
1735 West Harrison St, Suite 320 Chicago, IL 60612
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Pahan: While different toxins and a number of complex genetic approaches are used to model Parkinson’s disease in mice, this study delineates that simple castration is sufficient to cause persistent Parkinson’s like pathology and symptoms in male mice. This simple, but persistent, model may be helpful in discovering drugs against Parkinson’s disease. Furthermore, these results suggest that sudden drop of testosterone level could trigger Parkinson’s disease.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Professor John Zajicek
Professor of Clinical Neuroscience, Centre for Clinical Trials & Health Research - Translational & Stratified Medicine (Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry)
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Zajicek: Our study investigated whether dronabinol (one of the major active ingredients of cannabis) may slow the progression of multiple sclerosis. We currently have no treatments that are effective in modifying the disease course in people with either primary or secondary MS. We did a clinical trial across the UK involving nearly 500 patients, who were randomly allocated to dronabinol or placebo, and followed them up for three years to look at progression on rates. Overall we failed to find an effect of dronabinol on disease progression, either clinically (using a variety of clinical measures) or using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). There was a suggestion of an effect in people with the least disability (who didn't need a stick to help them walk), and there were no major problems with serious side effects. However, over all the population that took part in the study also progressed less than we expected, which reduced our chances of finding an effect of treatment. The study was not designed to investigate an effect on MS-related symptoms (such as pain and muscle stiffness), which have been investigated before.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Dr. Juan Pablo Villablanca, MD
Director, Neuroradiology
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica
The Natural History of Asymptomatic Unruptured Cerebral Aneurysms Evaluated Using CTA - Growth and Rupture Incidence and Correlation to Epidemiologic Risk Factors.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr Patrick Freund
Spinal Cord Injury Center Balgrist
University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich
Forchstrasse 380
8008 Zurich, Switzerland
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Freund: Novel interventions targeting acute spinal cord injury (SCI) have entered clinical trials, but neuroimaging biomarkers reflecting structural changes within the central nervous system are still awaited. In chronic SCI, neuroimaging provided evidence of structural changes at spinal cord and brain level that could be related to disability. However, the pattern and time course of these structural changes and their potential to predict clinical outcomes is uncertain.
In a prospective longitudinal study, thirteen patients with acute traumatic SCI were assessed clinically and by longitudinal MRI (within five weeks of injury, after two, six and twelve months) and were compared to eighteen healthy controls. Cross-sectional cord area, cranial white matter (CST) and grey matter (cortex) volume decrease was evident at baseline and progressed over twelve months. Multi-parametric mapping of myelin sensitive magnetization transfer (MT) and longitudinal relaxation rate (R1) was reduced both within and beyond the areas of atrophic changes. Better neurological and functional outcomes were associated with less atrophic changes of the CST in both cord and brain.
(more…)Frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease -- two fatal neurodegenerative disease with distinct symptoms...