Parkinson S Disease

A thousand acres stretched before him as Gary Rieke walked briskly behind a harvester, the parched, yellow stalks of rice sweeping against his knees. Stopping to adjust a bolt on the machine, Rieke struggled to maneuver a wrench with his trembling fingers. It was 1988, and Rieke was in his mid-40s, too young and too fit to feel his body betraying him. For two decades, he had farmed in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, and he knew what he wanted his hand to do.

Amphetamines, including the party drug Ecstasy, have reversed the effects of Parkinson's disease in mice, researchers from Duke University reported this week in the journal Public Library of Science Biology. They treated mice genetically engineered to have Parkinson's symptoms with more than 60 types of amphetamines and found that 14 reduced the symptoms, including tremors and rigidity. They are now looking for similar but less dangerous drugs that could help humans.

Eight participants in a discontinued clinical trial have lost a court bid seeking to force Amgen Inc. to continue providing an experimental Parkinson's disease drug. U.S. District Judge Joseph M. Hood in Lexington, Ky., ruled that Amgen had the right to terminate the clinical trial of the drug GDNF. Although patients believed the drug helped them, Amgen said GDNF did not work and appeared to be dangerous.

A handful of drugs that are commonly prescribed for Parkinson's disease can convert a tiny fraction of patients into compulsive gamblers in as little as a month, according to a study published today in the journal Archives of Neurology. The study is one of several to show the link and confirms that the drug pramipexole -- widely prescribed under the brand name Mirapex -- is the most likely to cause the rare side effect. Dr. M. Leann Dodd, a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Regarding "Study Adds to Dispute Over Drug by Amgen," July 2: Amgen spokeswoman Andrea Rothschild stated that the ability of clinical trial participants with Parkinson's disease to perform day-to-day tasks did not improve when treated with GDNF. This statement is not only incorrect and misleading but also a threat to the public's health, given the crippling effects of Parkinson's disease. Multiple clinical trial participants who received GDNF reported significant physical functioning improvements, including substantial gains in the ability to walk, bathe and feed themselves.

An Amgen Inc. drug at the center of a dispute over its use by Parkinson's disease patients spurred growth of brain cells in one sufferer, suggesting that it might benefit others, according to research released Friday. The report, written by a team of British doctors and published in the journal Nature Medicine, marked the first time that the drug GDNF had been shown to stimulate cell growth in humans.

A second set of participants in an aborted clinical trial has filed a federal lawsuit against Amgen Inc., seeking access to an experimental Parkinson's disease drug. Amgen withdrew the drug in September, saying it was no better than a placebo and could be harmful. The patients said the drug GDNF had helped them. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Lexington, Ky., by eight patients who were treated at the University of Kentucky Medical Center.

A federal judge in New York has refused to order Amgen Inc. to provide an experimental and potentially risky drug to two Parkinson's disease patients who once received the medicine in a clinical trial. The patients plan to appeal U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel's decision, said Kristen Suthers, daughter of patient Robert Suthers. Castel, in a written ruling Monday, said patients Suthers and Niwana Martin were "courageous" to participate in the Amgen trial.

A judge said Thursday that he would soon decide whether to force Amgen Inc. to give two people with Parkinson's disease an experimental drug that the biotechnology company insisted could harm them. Amgen ended a clinical trial for GDNF last year after it "made the decision that the drug presented an unreasonable risk," the company's attorney, Mark Gately, told U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel at a hearing in Manhattan.

Just days after Amgen Inc. said it would stop supplying patients an experimental drug for Parkinson's disease, a research team from the University of Kentucky reported in a medical journal that the medicine worked in a clinical trial. Don M. Gash, an author of the study, said he hoped Amgen would reconsider its decision and provide the trial drug to 48 patients who participated in company-supported studies.