Posted on: 29 August 2009, source: ScienceDaily
A common antibiotic can function as an "off switch" for a gene therapy being developed for Parkinson's disease, according to University of Florida researchers writing online in advance of September's Molecular Therapy. The discovery in rats answers an important question — how can new, therapeutic genes that have been irrevocably delivered to the human brain to treat Parkinson's be controlled if the genes unexpectedly start causing problems? Meanwhile, in a review of Parkinson treatments, the researchers say that prior experimental attempts using growth factors — naturally occurring substances that cause cells to grow and divide — to rescue dying brain cells may have failed because they occurred too late in the course of the disease. Together, the findings suggest that gene therapy to enable the brain to retain its ability to produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter that falls in critically short supply in Parkinson's patients, could be safely attempted during earlier stages of the disease with an added likelihood of success.