Gene Therapy is a new treatment for advanced Parkinson's Disease

A new, preliminary treatment involving triple-gene therapy appears safe and effective in helping to control motor function in Parkinson's disease patients, according to new research. The therapy, called ProSavin, works by reprogramming brain cells to produce dopamine, the chemical essential for controlling movement, the researchers said. Lack of dopamine causes the tremors, limb stiffness and loss of balance that patients with the neurodegenerative disease suffer. Researcher Kyriacos Mitrophanous, head of research at Oxford BioMedica in England, explained that the treatment uses a harmless virus to deliver three dopamine-making genes directly to the area of the brain that controls movement. These genes are able to convert non-dopamine-producing nerve cells into dopamine-producing cells. For the study, Mitrophanous and his colleagues tried three doses of ProSavin in 15 Parkinson's patients who no longer responded well to other treatments. They rated the patients' response on a scale that measures speech, tremors, rigidity, finger taps, posture, gait, and slow movement. All patients showed significant improvements in motor scores in the 12 hours after they stopped taking their other medications and at six months and a year after surgery.It appears that the highest dose of ProSavin provided the greatest level of dopamine production," Mitrophanous said.