http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16 ... 62,00.html
From: The Australian
Ecstasy 'reverses' Parkinson's disease
August 05, 2005
AMPHETAMINES, including the party drug ecstasy, reverse the effects of Parkinson's disease in mice, US researchers have found.
The research did not suggest the use of such drugs to treat the incurable brain disease, but might offer a way to help patients, they said yesterday.
The study, at Duke University in North Carolina, treated mice that were genetically modified to suffer from Parkinson's-like symptoms with more than 60 types of amphetamines.
Fourteen of the drugs helped reverse the symptoms, including the tremors and rigidity that mark the disease, raising the possibility of exploring related treatments for humans.
"We hope to find new drugs that are close chemically, but safe," said Marc Caron, who led the research.
Parkinson's disease is caused by the death of the brain cells that control movement and produce the chemical dopamine.
The new research showed that dopamine replacement - so far the most common, but only partly effective, Parkinson's treatment - might not be the only option, Dr Caron said.
Amphetamine-like drugs, not unlike those now given to children with attention deficit disorder, could eventually be used for Parkinson's, he said.
"We give these drugs in low doses to children, so it's not so terrible to say some day we should give similar drugs to Parkinson's patients."
The effects of coffee have been cited in the past as easing Parkinson's symptoms by keeping dopamine levels high.
But Dr Caron said coffee was effective only in early stages of the disease, when some dopamine was still present. The new study reflected treatment during advanced stages, when there was no longer any dopamine.
Raul Gainetdinov, who also worked on the study, said MDMA, known as ecstasy, proved the most effective of the amphetamines used in countering the Parkinson's symptoms.
The researchers were not sure why, and did not advocate self-medication with ecstasy. Apart from being illegal, the drug could be more damaging to human nerve tissue than it was to mice, Dr Gainetdinov said.
The findings were published in the current edition of Public Library of Science Biology.