For the first time in a person with Parkinson’s disease, researchers have shown that infusing a natural nerve growth factor directly into a specific area of the brain causes dopamine fibers to sprout and produces a notable clinical improvement.

In Parkinson’s disease, dopamine neurons in the brain are lost, resulting in the characteristic movement disorders. On the other hand, glial cells in the brain support nerve cells by producing a nerve factor, GDNF, and this has been shown to improve symptoms of Parkinson’s in experimental animals.

In the new report, in the journal Nature Medicine, UK researchers describe how they treated a 62-year-old man with Parkinson’s with infusions of GDNF into an area of the brain called the putamen. The man’s symptoms involved the left side of his body, so the right putamen was selected for infusion.

Overall, GDNF was infused continuously for 43 months.

Dr. Seth Love of Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, and colleagues note that after 24 months of infusion, the patient’s movement score had improved by 38 percent. At the same time, the putamen on the infusion side showed a marked increase in uptake of dopa medication, whereas the non-infused side showed a drop in uptake.

From 24 to 43 months, the patient’s motor ability worsened on the same side as the infusion but remained relatively stable on the opposite side.

Quality of life assessments showed improvements of 75 percent in activities of daily living at 24 months, and 70 percent at 43 months.

Three months after this last assessment, the man died of a Heart attack.

On postmortem examination of the brain, Love’s team found that dopamine fibers and neurons were five times denser on the right side of the putamen than the left, which they conclude was a result of the GDNF infusion.

These effects “provide a possible substrate for the sustained clinical improvement” seen in their patient, the investigators say.

SOURCE: Nature Medicine, July 2005.