Studies conducted by Cleveland researchers revealed a possible new treatment for Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.
According to research at University Hospitals, Case Western University and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, the drug can treat neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson’s disease and traumatic brain injury in a study published in the scientific journal, “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” Dr. Andrew A. Pieper, the Morley-Mather Chair of Neuropsychiatry, and the director of the Brain Health Medicines Center at Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals, alongside Dr. Sanford Markowitz, the Ingalls Professor of Cancer Genetics and Distinguished University Professor at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and Division of Hematology-Oncology Department of Medicine at Case Western Reserve and UH Seidman Cancer Center, led the study and found that blocking the enzyme 15-PGDH, or 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase, protected brain cells and enhanced outcomes in numerous pre-clinical models of Parkinson’s disease, according to a news release. Dr. Min-Kyoo Shin, former postdoctoral trainee in the Pieper Laboratory and current assistant professor at Seoul National University, contributed to the study by applying the same approach to three different models of Parkinson’s disease. It was found that drugs already in development for other conditions may also help slow or prevent neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease, the release said. Pieper is also the Rebecca E. Barchas, MD, DLFAPA, Professor of Translational Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University, and psychiatrist and investigator in the Louis Stokes VA Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center.
“We were encouraged to see that both human Parkinson’s disease brain tissue and the brains of our three mouse models showed abnormally elevated levels of 15-PGDH,” Pieper said in the release. “Both genetic and pharmacologic inhibition restored redox homeostasis, which protected mice from the neuroinflammation, neuronal cell death, and motor impairment normally seen in these models of PD.”…