Chemical discovery could ease Parkinsons disease patients

Though new University of Minnesota research could break ground on treatment for Parkinsons disease, Jackie Christensen, who was diagnosed with the illness 18 years ago, said she has a hard time imagining a fix for her daily struggles.

Theres not a short answer, said Christensen, who is also the state of Minnesotas director for the Parkinsons Action Network. I think its hard to find a cure because we dont know what causes it in most cases.

But Liqiang Chen, assistant professor at the Universitys Center for Drug Design, said he and his team of chemists have discovered powerful inhibitors that may be able to stop one of the diseases leading contributors. The results of their work were published in the September Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

Each year, U.S. doctors diagnosebetween 50,000 and 60,000 people with Parkinsons in addition to the countrys existing 1 million cases.

Chen said because the disease stems from the nervous system, its necessary for treatments to cross the barrier between the brain and the circulatory system but he said only about 2 percent of all FDA-approved drugs do so.

In order to be effective, Chen said, the pill needs to cross the blood-brain barrier.

A drug currently on the market named Levodopa increases the brains dopamine levels, but it only treats some of Parkinsons symptoms, such as tremors, stiffness and slow movements.

Christensen, who has sporadic Parkinsons, said while most other patients have tremors, she doesnt suffer from that particular symptom.

I tend to move fairly slowly, which is often very annoying, she said.

Chen said an overwhelming 90 percent of Parkinsons cases are sporadic, while only about 10 percent are genetic. He said the illnesss common variety is more difficult to correctly treat.

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Chemical discovery could ease Parkinsons disease patients