Parkinson's vaccine announced

Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center have developed a vaccine that reverses an experimental form of Parkinson's disease in mice.

The results are promising, but it's still years before the vaccine would be available for any routine use in humans, said Dr. Howard Gendelman, a leader of the research.

Even though the vaccine reversed Parkinson's in mice, the best hope is that it could halt the progression of the disease in humans, he said. In other words, the vaccine would not be a cure for Parkinson's.

Within two years, researchers could test if the vaccine is safe for humans, he said. Within five years, the effectiveness could be tested.

Gendelman and researcher R. Lee Mosley spoke about their new study of the vaccine during a news conference this morning on the UNMC campus. The study is being published today in the Journal of Immunology.

An estimated 1 million people in the United States and more than 4 million people worldwide have the disease, according to the Parkinson's Disease Foundation. Signs of the disease include shaking, slow movement and stiffness.

The cause is the loss of neurons, which produce dopamine, a chemical that controls movement and balance.

The loss of the neurons triggers a response in the immune system that destroys even more of the dopamine-producing neurons. The result is that the disease becomes worse.

Injection of the vaccine produced cells that reversed the disease by changing how the immune system in mice responds to the loss of dopamine.

Human studies are underway at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and, within the next month, at UNMC to determine if the characteristics of the human immune system are the same as that of mice. If the characteristics are the same, researchers would know if the vaccine is worth testing in humans.

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