Deep Pockets Being Opened for Parkinson's Research

By: Lara Endreszl
Published: Monday, 22 September 2008

Parkinson’s disease (PD) has affected the global awareness by striking people within the public eye that we look up to and can empathize with. In 2003 I saw Pope John Paul II in an audience at the Vatican and under the weight of Parkinson’s, the leader of the Catholic Church had no power against the will of his own body; his hands shook instead of waved, his body was hunched over in pain, and his voice trembled with instability. Stung like a bee with the diagnosis in 1984, Mohammed Ali, an honored man and boxing legend, is now confined to a wheelchair and while he still attends functions as a living sports legacy, he nods and twitches his head and hands not to the words being spoken or the songs being sung but to the beat of the Parkinson’s resounding in his head; he hasn’t won this fight yet. Michael J. Fox, a beloved character for years from television to the future on the big screen and back again, is most often recognized now as the brave young actor who was diagnosed at age 30 and is still fighting against the disease’s crippling effects. With the exposure of Parkinson’s disease reaching high-calibers, it’s no wonder that The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)—a division of The National Institutes of Health (NIH)—is reaching deep into their pockets. It looks like the global awareness of the PD has sparked an interest in the reasons behind the diagnoses and what we can do to find a cure.

Over the next five years, NIEHS will grant $21.25 million to three research schools in the United States to fund studies relating to how environmental factors contribute to the cause, prevention, and treatment of Parkinson’s disease. A central nervous system disorder, Parkinson’s disease affects over one million Americans each year and the disease progresses with age. In most cases, scientists don’t know specifically what brings on the disease, but some cases are known to be caused by severe head trauma (such is the speculation in Mohammed Ali’s case) or patterns of genetic abnormalities. Parkinson’s is thought to be a derivative of genetic mutations and outside environmental causes. For example, prolonged exposure to pesticides is thought to double a person’s risk for the disease.

The three grantees are from respected research schools around the country and are using their grants to cover a specific area of researching the disease. Gary Miller, Ph.D., at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, receives a grant for prolonged research of how environmental and genetic factors change dopamine cells within the brain that lead to Parkinson’s disease. The second grant goes to Marie-Françoise Chesselet, M.D., Ph.D., at the University of California, Los Angeles, who plans to specifically research pesticides that may be the main cause of sporadic Parkinson’s diagnoses and possibly come up with a prevention plan by cautioning the use of certain pesticides. Lastly, Stuart Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California, will investigate free radical stress caused by environmental toxins that cause genetic mutations responsible for helping to progress the disease and hopefully be able to isolate the body’s proteins damaged in the process.

Acting director of the Division of Extramural Research and Training at NIEHS, Dennis Lang, Ph.D., said of the grantees, “The UCLA and Emory CNS grants will extend the exciting lines of research previously supported by NIEHS,…while the Burnham Institute grant will bring an important new perspective to research on gene-environment interplay in Parkinson's disease.”

Perhaps the most influential person in my life who lived with Parkinson’s disease wasn’t a public figure and wasn’t world-renown for anything special; she was my grandmother. She raised seven children in a modest home, she was a do-gooder and revered by the community for her cooking talent and quilting techniques. As the years rolled by and she wasn’t able to stand up much less get out of the house, my dad’s mother spent her remaining years cooped up in a nursing home shaking and drooling, but always believed that she would walk again. That faith was finally lost in April 2005 when—the same day as Pope John Paul II—my grandmother passed on. With the generous research grants from NIEHS dedicated to finding a cure, I hope continuing investigations will be able to finally give those living with Parkinson’s the second chance at life they deserve.