Durham, NC - Senior Lindsey Olivere is trying to synthesize novel compounds that may enhance Parkinson's treatments. The chemistry major and literature minor from Wilmington, Del., is conducting her research as part of a Chemistry Summer Research Fellowship and plans on continuing her work as part of a senior thesis. Olivere, who is working with chemistry and biochemistry professor Dewey McCafferty, is researching the mechanism of action and target site of cyclopropylamine substrates -- compounds that have anti-Parkinsonian effects. "Our ultimate goal right now is to make eight grams of this final product to send off to our collaborators to be tested in rats for the anti-Parkinsonian effects," she said. "We believe it's a dopamine independent pathway, which is really exciting because right now Parkinson's treatments are focused on dopamine pathways." Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by a loss of motor function. The disease symptoms are the result of the death of dopamine-producing cells. Olivere said by the time most patients start showing symptoms, 60 to 70 percent of their dopamine stores have been depleted. Thus, many treatments focus on restoring dopamine levels in the body, and few studies have looked at alternative mechanisms. Currently, Olivere is working … Continue reading →

A study group at the Medical University of Vienna's Centre for Brain Research has investigated the function of an intracellular dopamine pump in Parkinson's patients compared to a healthy test group. It turned out that this pump is less effective at pumping out dopamine and storing it in the brain cells of Parkinson's sufferers. If dopamine is not stored correctly, however, it can cause self-destruction of the affected nerve cells. In the brain, dopamine mediates the exchange of information between different neurons and, to help it do this, it is continuously reformed at the contact points between the corresponding nerve cells. It is stored in structures known as vesicles (intracellular bubbles) and it is released when required. In people with Parkinson's disease, the death of these nerve cells causes a lack of dopamine, and this in turn causes the familiar movement problems such as motor retardation, stiffness of the muscles and tremors. More than 50 years ago, in the Institute of Pharmacology at the University of Vienna (now the MedUni Vienna), Herbert Ehringer and Oleh Hornykiewicz discovered that Parkinson's disease is caused by a lack of dopamine in certain regions of the brain. This discovery enabled Hornykiewicz to introduce the … Continue reading →