THE prospect of one day treating people with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease with gene therapy is growing brighter, say scientists. At a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience held last week in Miami, researchers reported obtaining encouraging results with monkeys, which suggest that
THE prospect of one day treating people with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease with gene therapy is growing brighter, say scientists. At a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience held last week in Miami, researchers reported obtaining encouraging results with monkeys, which suggest that the symptoms of both debilitating conditions might be slowed in people.
In Alzheimer's disease, people suffer progressive memory loss, largely due to the death of a crucial class of nerve cell in their brains. However, these cells, called cholinergic neurons, can be coaxed to stay alive when supplied with a brain chemical called nerve growth factor (NGF).
Mark Tuszynski of the University of California at San Diego and Dwaine Emerich of CytoTherapeutics, in Providence, Rhode Island, both reported that they had genetically engineered cells to produce NGF, and inserted them into monkeys given a special kind of brain surgery that results in the death of cholinergic neurons....
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.