Pour Another Cup

As I recently blogged, I’m going to read and respond to books and articles about Parkinson’s disease via a reader response format that we use with students at my school, the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning.

Here are the instructions:

Reader Response Form

When you’ve finished reading, put the book or article away.
Keep the book / article out of your sight for Questions 1, 2 and 3.
Look at the book / article for Questions 4, 5 and 6.

1. Describe in your own words what happened in the pages you just read. What are the main points?  Do not look at the book or story as you do this.
2. What’s your reaction to the story / article?
3. What does the story / article make you think about from your own life?
4. Copy a sentence from the story / article that you find especially interesting or unusual. Use quotation marks and write the page number:
5. What makes this sentence interesting for you?
6. What questions does the story / article raise in you? What questions are you left with?

Today I will report on an online article, “How caffeine could help slow Parkinson’s disease,” by Honor Whiteman.

Here goes!

1. Describe in your own words what happened in the pages you just read. What are the main points?  Do not look at the book or story as you do this.

This article describes a new direction for PD research.  As we all know, PD is caused when the substancia nigra section in our brains stops producing the chemical dopamine.  Dopamine allows the brain to communicate to the body’s muscles.  When this process is impeded, we get the physical symptoms of PD:  tremors, rigidity, tiny handwriting, etc.  For people with PD, the dopamine-producing cells die off.

Until now, medical research to alleviate this problem focused on getting the remaining dopamine-producing cells to produce more.  But this new research direction, as described in the article, aims to stop cells from dying off to begin with.

Apparently, the reason why the dopamine-producing cells stop doing their thing is because a protein called alpha-synuclein (a-synuclein)  somehow clumps in the brain, mucking up the works.  This new research is trying to stop this process, allowing the surviving dopamine-producing cells to survive and flourish.

The researchers have identified two compounds?  components?  of caffeine, which in lab experiments involving yeast got the a-synuclein to stop clumping and mind its own business.  The next step in the research is to try it out with mice.  (I’ve often read elsewhere that researchers can induce Parkinson’s disease in mice and rats.)  If the experiments with mice work out, then it’ll be time to develop the drug for humans.

So come on, mice!

2. What’s your reaction to the story / article?

I think it’s great, of course, in part because the article states that for the first time science may be able to stop the dying off of the brain cells that produce dopamine.

Come on, mice!

3. What does the story / article make you think about from your own life?

This is something I’ve been thinking about recently.  I’ve had to increase my daily dosages of Sinemet (carbidopa-levodopa) and it worries me.  When I first started taking Sinemet, I was getting along fine with just three tablets a day.  It was amazing to be able to type again, to walk without limping, to write with pen or pencil, to cut chicken breasts and other huge chunks of meat on my dinner plate.

Then three hits a day weren’t enough.  So my neurologist upped my dose and I took five.  And now I’m up to seven on many days.  I’m finding that the beneficial effects of Sinemet start to wear off after two hours, which spells disaster for me at work, because I need to type at the computer and take notes when I’m working with kids and teachers.  Furthermore, my work day has become a tightrope walk, as I have to pop a new pill approximately every two hours and make sure that I eat approximately 30 minutes after downing a pill so my stomach has an hour to clear out all the food before the next dose plummets down my gullet.  (You need to take Sinemet on an empty stomach, especially avoiding protein.)

So I hope this new research direction pulls through.  I’d hate to be in the position of having a completely moribund substancia nigra.

4. Copy a sentence from the story / article that you find especially interesting or unusual. Use quotation marks and write the page number:

“According to Lee, the majority of drug compounds in development for Parkinson’s have focused on increasing dopamine production of surviving nerve cells, ‘but this is effective only as long as there are still enough cells to do the job,’ he notes.  For their study – published in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience – Lee and team took a different approach; they set out to identify ways to protect dopamine-producing cells by halting the misfolding of a-synuclein.” – Click here for link.

5. What makes this sentence interesting for you?

It would be great if this really works.

6. What questions does the story / article raise in you? What questions are you left with?

• If I just drink a lot of coffee, will I get the same benefit?
• Does some of the “good stuff” in coffee not make it into the brain because of the blood/brain barrier?
• What’s the time line re: how long we have to wait for clinical trials on humans?  At the World Parkinson Congress, I recall one presenter who said it takes 10-15 years before a new drug gets final approval for mass human use.
• Is Starbucks underwriting this research? (Joke!)
• How much coffee do the researchers drink themselves?  (Joke!  – sort of!)