UNC researchers close to Parkinson’s treatment

Scientists at UNC have developed methods to restore neurons and reduce the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s disease affects movement and currently has no cure.

“Parkinson’s disease happens when neurons in the brain die out,” said Elena Batrakova, the lead researcher and associate professor at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery.

“This research is important because it is a very simple and efficient method...to restore neurons in the brain,” Batrakova said.

Matthew Haney, a research technician who worked on the team, said the team currently has six members, and most of them are research assistants.

“Basically what we’re attempting to do is to transect another cell type, macrophages specifically, to produce a therapeutic protein,” Haney said. “These macrophages will take this protein across the blood-brain barrier and deliver it to neurons there.”

The team genetically modified the macrophages, which are white blood cells, by pumping them with enough protein to travel through the brain to where damaged neurons associated with Parkinson’s are located.

“The idea of this project is to try to use (the macrophages) actually as Trojan horses...so they can go to the site of the disease,” said Alexander Kabanov, director of the Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery.

Kabanov said macrophages normally destroy what is put into them, but the team figured out how to preserve the enzyme within the macrophage.

“We take the part of the problem and actually make it part of the solution,” Kabanov said.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center recently paid for the research, which was ongoing, with a $50,000 grant.

The research started around seven years ago in Omaha, Nebraska, but the team moved to Chapel Hill three years ago.

When the researchers began working in Chapel Hill, all of their work was done in test tubes, said David Etchison, director of communications for the pharmacy school. Now, the research team is working with genetically modified Parkinson’s mice.

“The next step we will work on (will be) specific mice that represent the Parkinson’s disease patient,” said Batrakova. “We will develop a better formulation.”

The team hopes the next step will include clinical trials on human patients. The procedures would need to be made scalable — the work done in a small lab would need to be transferable into a clinical setting.

“It is actually very, very possible, but it requires some kind of work that is translational,” Kabanov said. “The real final goal for us, and actually the greatest reward, would be if we create the working medicines which will heal people.”

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