[Bill Church]

There is research that shows that people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease produce a unique group of compounds from their sebatious glands.  See The Smell of Parkinson’s disease | American Parkinson Disease Association (apdaparkinson.org).

For the scientists in the community: Parkinson’s disease signatures found in skin oil (acs.org)

[Bill Church]

Good morning….Is the ‘proof of concept’ study using monkeys published and if so could you please provide the reference.

Thank you

[Bill Church]

@Jennifer Blackstone…I think that neurotrophic factors (CDNF and GDNF) are key in managing the chemical reactions involved in neurodegeneration.

 

[Bill Church]

Good morning all….I have recently joined this forum and would like to make a general comment about PD research.  I have been studying and teaching about the chemical causes of PD for over 30 years.  It breaks my heart to read posts like the above where patients get their hopes up when new dopamine replacement research is published.  Please review these types of studies with one very important caveat:  The animal models used in these studies (the UCSD one cited above included) utilize an acute DA-depletion model – 6OHDA or MPTP – where the toxin that killed the DA cells initially is completely absent from the brain when the new cells are introduced (either into the Substantia nigra or the Striatum).  PD in humans is associated with a progressive, CHRONIC loss of dopamine cells, meaning that something has been killing these cells for many years (often decades).  The toxic environment responsible for contributing to the cell death still exists and if you put new DA-producing cells into this environment they will most likely die also….It’s like adding more logs to the firepit, the fire gets intense for a little bit, but the fire is still there and the logs will burn away.