Stanford makes progress in Parkinson's disease research

Stanford makes progress in Parkinson's disease research
By Diana Samuels
mediaNews
Posted: 03/21/2009 12:25:03 PM PDT
Updated: 03/21/2009 12:26:39 PM PDT

New developments in Parkinson's disease research at Stanford could lead to treatments that are more effective and easier on patients, the university announced Thursday.

An estimated 1.5 million Americans suffer from Parkinson's disease, a brain disorder that usually causes tremors. Doctors often treat Parkinson's symptoms using deep-brain stimulation — electrodes implanted in the brain give pulses of electricity — though they were unsure exactly why those pulses seemed to help patients.

In a new study, associate professor Dr. Karl Deisseroth and graduate students Viviana Gradinaru and Murtaza Mogri say they believe they've identified the specific part of the brain that is affected by that electrical stimulation.

In rodent tests, they found that instead of the subthalmic nucleus — the area of the brain where the electrical implants are typically implanted — it's actually the axons, or neural wires, that connect the subthalmic nucleus to other parts of the brain, that are most impacted by stimulation.

The researchers used a technique called "optogenetics," engineering rodents' brain cells so the cells are controllable by light. This allowed them to control different sections of the brain at different times, and they determined that by stimulating the axons the rodents' Parkinsonian symptoms seemed to stop.

"This insight leads to deeper understanding of the circuit and could even lead to new kinds of treatment,"
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Deisseroth said in a news release. "Because these axons are coming from areas closer to the brain's surface, new treatments could perhaps be less invasive than deep-brain stimulation."

Their study was released Thursday in the online journal Science Express.