NEWS: The Age 04 Aug 2005: Ecstasy may slow Parkinson's, study shows

Ecstasy may slow Parkinson's, study shows
August 4, 2005 - 8:46AM

Amphetamines, including the party drug Ecstasy, have reversed the effects of Parkinson's disease in mice, researchers said today.

Their finding does not suggest the use of now-illegal drugs to treat the incurable brain disease, but may offer a way forward in helping patients, they said.

The team at Duke University in North Carolina treated mice that were genetically modified to suffer from Parkinson's-like symptoms with more than 60 types of amphetamines.

Fourteen of the drugs helped reverse the symptoms of the mice, including the tremors and rigidity that mark the disease - raising the possibility of exploring related treatments for humans.

"We hope to find new drugs that are close chemically, but safe," Marc Caron, who led the research, said in a telephone interview.

Parkinson's disease is caused by the death of brain cells that control physical movement and produce the essential chemical dopamine.

According to the American Parkinson's Disease Association, there are about 1.5 million Americans with the disease.

The new research shows that dopamine replacement, so far the most common, but only partly effective Parkinson's treatment, may not be the only viable option, Caron said.

Amphetamine-like drugs, not unlike those now given to children with attention deficit disorder, could eventually be used for Parkinson's, he said.

"We give these drugs in low doses to children, so it's not so terrible to say some day we should give similar drugs to Parkinson's patients," Caron said.

The effects of another stimulant, coffee, have been cited in the past as easing Parkinson's symptoms by keeping dopamine levels high.

But Caron said coffee is only effective in early stages of the disease, when some dopamine is still present. His new study reflects treatment during advanced stages, when there is no longer any dopamine present.

MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, proved the most effective of the amphetamines used at counteracting Parkinson's symptoms in the mice, said Raul Gainetdinov, who also worked on the study.

He said he is not sure exactly why.

"We do not advocate self-medication with Ecstasy," Gainetdinov said in a telephone interview.

He said that apart from being illegal and controversial, the drug can be more damaging to human nerve tissue than it is to mice.

Caron and Gainetdinov's findings were published in the August edition of Public Library of Science Biology.

- Reuters

From: http://www.theage.com.au/news/world...ons-study-shows/2005/08/04/1122748728081.html

Click to expand...

Ecstasy users 'risk Parkinson's disease'
19:00 26 September 2002
NewScientist.com news service
David Concar


People using Ecstasy for as little as one night are putting themselves at risk of developing Parkinson's disease, warns a new investigation of the drug's effects on animal brains.

The study uncovers evidence of a type of nerve damage never previously seen in monkeys or rats exposed to Ecstasy, or MDMA, and will stoke an increasingly acrimonious debate about whether it is toxic to human nerve cells.

George Ricaurte and his team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, gave up to three consecutive doses of the drug to squirrel monkeys and baboons. The doses were administered two hours apart in a bid to mimic the way some all-night clubbers use the drug.

Weeks later, the researchers examined the animals' brains and found evidence of what they call "profound and severe" damage to dopamine-producing neurons. These are the nerve cells lost in Parkinson's disease and their healthy function is important for movement, speech and cognition.

The animals' brains had abnormally low levels of both dopamine and certain "transporter" proteins that handle this neurotransmitter. The researchers also detected signs of inflammatory damage.

"The damaging effect of MDMA, together with the decline in dopaminergic function known to occur with age, may put individuals at increased risk of developing Parkinsonism and other neuropsychiatric diseases either as young adults or later in life," the researchers write in the journal Science.

The paper also claims some people already diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson's disease may unknowingly be victims of MDMA.

Nerve network
The link with dopamine overturns a 15-year assumption about the way MDMA interacts with the brain. Previous studies in monkeys and rats claimed the drug's toxicity was strictly limited to serotonin-producing cells, a quite different nerve network. But in the new research these serotonin effects were mild compared with those seen with dopamine cells.

The researchers suggest the discrepancy reflects the way the drug was administered to animals in the latest study, in multiple doses given in quick succession.

But opinion is sharply divided on the relevance to human Ecstasy users. Robin Meadowcroft, director of the UK's Parkinson's Disease Society, told New Scientist that there is no evidence early-onset Parkinson's disease is on the increase or that former MDMA users are turning up at clinics with Parkinson's symptoms. This is despite the fact that the drug has been widely used since the early 1980s.

"If the drug, used in large quantities, were responsible for the young-onset of Parkinson's disease we might have expected to see some early evidence of this," says Adrian Williams, a neurologist at the University of Birmingham in the UK. Another drug from the 1980s, a synthetic heroin called MPTP, did cause Parkinsonism and was detected very quickly when users presented with severe symptoms.

Equivalent doses
The difficulty of comparing species makes it is impossible to know if the MDMA doses used in the experiment are equivalent to human doses, says Stephen Kish, a neuroanatomist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

And there are signs that they were not, say experts. The MDMA was injected rather than given orally and two of the 10 animals got so sick with hyperthermia that they died during the experiment. Overheating can strike down human users of the drug but at this frequency.

"The money would have been better spent investigating the dopamine effects in humans," says Kish.

Journal reference: Science (vol 297, p 2260)

Click to expand...

sonicnature said:

^ You need to watch 'Ecstacy Rising'

Click to expand...

chugs said:

I was actually hoping that perhaps someone with Parkinsons had posted in Bluelight about their experince in using MDMA as an agent to control or effect postive change their in their disease/symptoms

Click to expand...

• NEWS: ABCnews 15 Feb 01: XTC relieves Parkinson's symptoms?
• E and Parkinsons Disease
• DrugNews-list: Ecstasy Has A Dramatic Effect On Parkinson's Symptoms
• DrugNews-list: Review of Ricuarte's Parkinson's Claim

eccitude said:

It may have "helped reverse the symptoms of the mice, including the tremors and rigidity that mark the disease", but the researchers have yet to work out how to stop the mice from dancing all night.

Click to expand...

chugs: Are these any help to you?

Click to expand...