New treatment hope for Parkinson’s

North Carolina, March 20: Severe symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, an often disabling condition, can be eased by electrically stimulating the spinal cord, results of a rodent study show.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive and degenerative neurological disorder which impairs the motor skills and damages the movement, muscle control and balance.

Caused by the progressive death of the neurons responsible for producing dopamine, a neurotransmitter closely linked with movement control, the disease is usually diagnosed when 50 to 80 percent of these neurons are dead.

Shaking, trembling limbs and rigid muscles are the telltale signs of Parkinson’s disease. Other typical symptoms include inexpressive face, infrequent blinking, drooling, incontinence and constipation.

As per the current line of action, L-dopa, a drug that restores dopamine, the chemical responsible for transmitting impulses from nerve to nerve, is used on patients with mild to moderate symptoms of Parkinson.

In severe cases, a surgical method called Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is used. The process involves implantation of a brain pacemakerdefine, a medical device which transmits electrical impulses to specific parts of the brain. Though being effective, DBS is highly invasive and risky.

The latest treatment, called the Dorsal Column Stimulation (DCS), is under development by the researchers at the Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, North Carolina. It is less-invasive and significantly less risky, researchers emphasized.

In the rodent trail, genetically engineered mice (with depleted dopamine levels) were fixed with two paper-thin electrodes into a small slit in the spine. Mild electric current was then passed which helped stimulate peripheral nerves between body and brain.

Surprisingly, within three seconds of electrical stimulation, the mice could move about normally. They were 26 times more active, researchers noted.

Moving a step forward, DCS was used in assistance with the widely used L-dopa drug therapy. Results were even better.

“Only two doses of L-dopa were needed to produce movement, compared with five doses when it was used by itself,” researchers asserted.

“The idea of using spinal cord stimulation to treat Parkinson’s disease is entirely new,” said Dr. Ali Rezai, a neurosurgeon and director of the Center for Neurological Restoration at the Cleveland Clinic. “It is both provocative and fascinating, but further research is needed on how it would work in practice.”

The procedure will now be tested on monkeys. If successful, “human clinical trials could begin in the next few years”, researchers claimed.

The results of the rodent trail appear in the March 20 issue of the journal Science.