The National Parkinson's Foundation is sponsoring symposiums for Young Onset Parkinson's Disease this year (2010). I listened to the speakers via live webcast. There has continued to be increasing success with Deep Brain Stimulation surgery (DBS). This surgery appears to be designed for patients like me...relatively young suffering from dyskenisia and on/off fluctuations. An electrode is implanted in the brain connected by a wire running down the side of the neck to a pacemaker implanted in the chest. I have been hoping they would find a way to accomplish this without the wire and pacemaker which apparently is a procedure currently in process but I don't know when it will be available. The current procedure has been used and refined for over ten years.
Gene therapy is beng tested which accomplishes the same result as DBS. The therapy created by During and Michael G Kaplitt, M. D., Ph.D., attaches the gene for a chemical messenger called GAD to a harmless virus. After infusion into the STN via a thin needle, this genetically engineered virus gets into brain cells and makes them send out GAD signals. It's a signal that tells the brain to calm down. It doesn't work right away. It takes time for GAD levels to build up. This holds great promise but has not been used and tested as long as DBS . They have not yet confirmed any real use for stem cells in relieving Parkinson's symptoms.
I plan to discuss this with my neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and hopefully attend the next symposium in Georgia in the fall. I have to weigh the benefits of waiting to allow doctors to refine current practices and develop new procedures. There is greater success with younger patients and if the current procedures can help me now, should I take advantage of that now?
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