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WASHINGTON, Mar 08, 2001 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Parkinson's disease researchers and patient groups were dismayed that a once-promising experimental treatment appeared to make patient sicker rather than better.
In the first study of its kind, researchers reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine that transplanting human fetal dopamine neurons directly into the brains of Parkinson's patients had little effect on performance after one year as compared to a group of patients who underwent a sham procedure.
The procedure appeared to help some patients over the age of 60 years, but in younger patients the procedure was associated with a greater incidence of dyskinesia, the inability to make voluntary movements.
The finding is "worrisome," and the results do not support transplants of this type, concluded lead researcher Dr. Curt Freed, with the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
Freed and colleagues at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York transplanted dopamine neurons directly into the brain through holes drilled in the heads of volunteers. Scientists understand that severe dopamine deficits are at least partially responsible for the progressive disease, in which patients gradually lose control over their body movements.
According to Paul Maestrone, director of scientific and medical affairs for the American Parkinson's Disease Association, the findings were first reported at a conference in Spain.
"This was the most promising research in the field, but it did not work out the way he hoped. When you are in biomedical research, it is always a gamble -- a study may work out, or it may not. In this case the procedure worked in monkeys, but not in human subjects," he told United Press International.
Maestrone said the most promising research now for Parkinson's patients are studies involving fetal stem-cell transplants. "But we are still a long way from testing the procedure in humans," he said.
By KURT SAMSON, UPI Medical Writer
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
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