Biotech Strategy Blog

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Posts from the ‘Parkinson’s Disease’ category

Using CSF Biomarkers for Differential Diagnosis of Neurological Diseases

Drug development for neurodegenerative brain diseases such as Parkinson’s or dementia, of which Alzheimer’s is the most common form, needs to focus on patients early in the disease, not those where brain damage has already occurred.

Diagnosing and treating patients more effectively earlier will, even if you aren’t able to instigate a cure, offer the ability to modify the disease progression and slow or delay when brain damage occurs.  In the case of Alzheimer’s, once the amyloid plaques (tangles of misshapen proteins) have accumulated in nervous tissue, it has so far been impossible to untangle or remove them.

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Discovering the cause of Lou Gehrig’s disease

Yankee Lou Gehrig scores head first in 1925 300x240 Discovering the cause of Lou Gehrig’s disease

In a letter to the science journal Nature, published online on August 21, 2011, scientists from Northwestern University in Chicago report findings that could help develop drugs for patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

ALS is a progressive, fatal, degenerative motor neurone disease, which results in the inability to walk, get out of bed, move arms, hands, swallow or chew. Unlike Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive functions are not usually impaired, making it a particularly nasty disease when faced with awareness of disease progression.

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Can we halt memory loss as we get older?

It’s a fact of human life that we lose physical and mental function as we get older. In the information age that we currently live in, this translates into a decline in our ability to function and perform the activities of daily living. Can we halt or delay age-related memory loss?

Aug 11 Cover of Nature Can we halt memory loss as we get older?Min Wang and colleagues from Yale University School of Medicine in the August 11 issue of Nature, have published some elegant research that suggests we may be able to, at some point in the future.

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ARVO 2011 Using the eye as a window into the brain

Due to the pressure of other commitments, I only had the pleasure of attending the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) for two days, but one of my key take home messages from the meeting is how we can use the eye as a window into the brain.  This is particularly relevant to Alzheimer’s research.

ARVO researchers at a lunchtime workshop that I attended asked the question of what can we learn from shared disease mechanisms in age-related macular degeneration (AMD), Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Glaucoma to devise therapies of the future?

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Development of first selective inhibitor of LRRK2 mutation found in Parkinson’s disease is progress on road towards new therapy

This month is Parkinson’s awareness month.  Following on from my recent interview (that you can read here & here) with Dr Todd Sherer of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, I was interested to read about progress being made on the road to towards targeted therapies.

The April 2011 issue of Nature Chemical Biology reports the development of a selective inhibitor of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2), a gene that is mutated in some patients with Parkinson’s disease.

The team of researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, University of Dundee, Scripps Research Institute and ActivX Biosciences applied a novel, screening strategy focused on selectively inhibiting LRRK2.

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The future of Parkinson’s disease, part 2 of an interview with Dr Todd Sherer, Chief Program Officer, Michael J Fox Foundation

Michael J. Fox Foundation Logo 300x84 The future of Parkinsons disease, part 2 of an interview with Dr Todd Sherer, Chief Program Officer, Michael J Fox FoundationBiotech Strategy Blog recently had the privilege to  interview Dr Todd Sherer, Chief Program Officer of the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

In the second part of a two-part interview, Pieter Droppert asks what the future holds for Parkinson’s disease research? You can read the first part of the interview here.

Part 2:  Understanding Parkinson’s disease

Biotech Strategy Blog: Why don’t we know what the cause of Parkinson’s disease is?

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AAAS Science Webinar on Parkinson’s Disease Biomarkers

AAAS Parkinsons Disease Webinar AAAS Science Webinar on Parkinsons Disease BiomarkersYesterday, I posted the first part of my interview with Dr Todd Sherer, Chief Program Officer at the Michael J Fox Foundation.

Next week, I will be posting the second part of the interview that discusses the significant research the foundation is funding on biomarkers that can help the diagnosis of the disease and monitor its progression.

If you are interested in learning more about the latest developments around Parkinson’s disease biomarkers, then you may wish to consider the April 27, 2011 webinar from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on the “Early Detection of Parkinson’s Disease: The Challenges and Potential of New Biomarkers.”

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Making a difference to Parkinson’s Disease Research, an interview with Dr Todd Sherer, Michael J Fox Foundation

Michael J. Fox Foundation Making a difference to Parkinson’s Disease Research, an interview with Dr Todd Sherer, Michael J Fox Foundation

Biotech Strategy blog recently had the privilege to do a phone interview with Dr Todd Sherer, the Chief Program Officer of the Michael J Fox Foundation.  In this two- part interview, Pieter Droppert asks what the MJFF approach to research funding is and what the future holds for Parkinson’s disease research?

 

Part 1:  Research Funding

Research funding is key to science. Without it there would be no translational medicine that takes basic research and turns it into clinical applications that benefit humans.  One organization that is making a difference and bridging the gap between patients and research is the Michael J Fox Foundation (MJFF).

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Patients with Spinal Cord Injury may benefit from treatment with Taxanes

Taxanes are a class of drug that are used in breast, lung and ovarian cancer chemotherapy to disrupt the function of microtubules that are essential to cell division. They include paclitaxel (Taxol®) and docetaxel (Taxotere®).

Paclitaxel is also used to prevent the narrowing (restenosis) that occurs with coronary artery stents that are used to open blocked coronary arteries. Drug coated stents (a.k.a. “drug-eluting stents) reduce scar tissue.

Feb 18 2011 Issue of Science 235x300 Patients with Spinal Cord Injury may benefit from treatment with TaxanesResearch published in the February 18, 2011 edition of Science, by Farida Hellal and colleagues has now shown that treatment with paclitaxel reduces the scarring associated with spinal cord injury (SCI) and promotes nerve regeneration.

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Allon Therapeutics announces promising preclinical results for davunetide in Parkinson’s Disease

Earlier this month the Michael J Fox Foundation (MJFF) announced that Vancouver based Allon Therapeutics had been able to improve motor function and brain pathology in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease (PD).

MJFF funded this research with Allon Therapeutics. The preclinical study results are published in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience.

What makes this data interesting is that it adds further support to the potential efficacy of the company’s lead product, davunetide, in a wide range of neurodegenerative disorders.

Davunetide (AL-108) is a microtubule-interacting peptide based on an eight amino acid sequence, Asn-Ala-Pro-Val-Ser-Ile-Pro-Gln, single letter code NAPVSIPQ (NAP) derived from activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP). It has been shown to have neuroprotective properties.

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