Biotech Updates

Gene Therapy Reverses Symptoms of Parkinson's Disease

March 25, 2011

A successful gene therapy to treat Parkinson's disease has been recently published in the journal Lancet Neurology. This study is the Phase 2 of the project, following the first successful randomized, double-blinded clinical trial of a gene therapy for Parkinson's or any neurological disorder.The approach includes the introduction of NLX-P101 gene into the brain to normalize chemical signaling.

"Patients who received NLX-P101 showed a significant reduction in the motor symptoms of Parkinson's, including tremor, rigidity and difficulty initiating movement," says Dr. Michael Kaplitt, who pioneered the approach and helped design the clinical trial. Kaplitt and co-author Dr. Matthew During studied 45 patients and results showed that half of the patients that received gene therapy showed improvements compared to the 14 percent in the control group.

For more on this article, see  http://weill.cornell.edu/news/releases/wcmc/wcmc_2011/03_17_11.shtml