PARKINSON’S DISEASE BREAKTHROUGH
British docs pioneer new treatment to restore cells hit by Parkinson’s
A NEW treatment has been found to halt and even reverse Parkinson’s disease.
In a trial, it restored damaged brain cells, bringing real hope for a cure to the UK’s 145,000 Parkinson’s sufferers.
At the end of the five-year trial, participants stopped having tremors, regained their sense of smell and could walk from one side of a room to the other without any assistance.
The £3million study found boosting the levels of a naturally-occurring protein can regenerate dying brain cells if injected directly into the brain.
Surgeons gave the protein, Glial Cell Line Derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF), to 41 participants via a tube surgically implanted into the brain from behind the ear.
“It meant the protein was delivered to affected areas with pinpoint accuracy.
GDNF has been tested before but it was the first time it had been directly delivered to the centre of the brain.
One of the participants on the trial was 49-year-old Tom Isaacs.
Tom, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s aged 27, co-founded the Cure Parkinson’s Trust in 2005 and was instrumental in making the trial happen with lead neurosurgeon Professor Steven Gill, who came up with the new delivery method for the drug.
Tom had a severe case of Parkinson’s but after several rounds of GDNF infusions, he could feel a difference.
He went from having violent tremors and barely being able to walk, to running around the back garden.
Tragically, Tom died from an unrelated heart condition in 2017.
Grandmother Christine Proctor, of Consett, County Durham, said taking part in the pioneering trial has changed her life.
The 57- year- old, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2004, added: “Within just two days of having the infusion of GDNF, I noticed an improvement in my mobility.
“I wasn’t as stiff. I wake up like a lump of wood normally but I could actually sit up without assistance and move quite nimbly before taking my medication. Previously, I couldn’t get out of bed without my meds.”
Christine went from driving an automatic to a manual car and decreased her normal medication doses after receiving the treatment.
She added: “The difference GDNF made was most definitely life-changing for me. It gave me mobility but also confidence as a result of that mobility.”
Christine’s last infusion was two years ago and she believes the progression of her Parkinson’s has slowed following the trial.
The study was carried out at Bristol’s Frenchay and Southmead hospitals between 2012 and 2017.
Principal investigator Dr Alan Whone said: “This represents some of the most compelling evidence yet that we may have a means to possibly reawaken and restore the dopamine brain cells that are gradually destroyed in Parkinson’s.”
Plans are being made for another GDNF trial.
Gill believes the technology could be used to administer chemotherapy to brain tumour patients or to test new drugs for Alzheimer’s and stroke patients.
Professor Roger Morris, from King’s College London, said: “If intra-brain perfusion can be safely achieved for long-term drug delivery inside the brain, the range of medication that can be used to combat brain diseases – stroke and cancer as well as neurodegeneration – will be massively expanded.”
The trials feature in BBC2 documentary The Parkinson’s Drug Trial: A Miracle Cure? which will be shown tomorrow at 9pm.