Profs. Gregory Petsko and Dagmar Ringe (CHEM) are part of a group of scientists led by researchers at Columbia University that has discovered a new pathway in cells that influences the collection of specific proteins called polyamines, which is one of the "central characteristics of Parkinson's disease and probably causes the disease," said Petsko in an interview with the Justice. Especially significant about the results of the study is the fact that drugs designed to slow the buildup of the polyamines already exist, said Petsko.

Petsko explained that the drugs were initially intended to combat cancer and said that before this research, no one would have thought to make the connection between these drugs, more specifically the chemical compounds in the drugs, and their applications for Parkinson's disease.

Petsko said that these drugs, aimed at the pathway newly discovered by the group, "may have therapeutic benefits in Parkinson's disease," meaning they may be able to help treat the disease in some cases. Petsko also said that the research has established the connection between polyamines and Parkinson's so that the presence of polyamines in the body might be able to be used to diagnose Parkinson's early on in the progression of the disease.

Scott A. Small, M.D., the senior author of the study and Herbert Irving associate professor of Neurology in the Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center was quoted in a separate article, which appeared online, as saying, "The most exciting thing about the finding is that it opens up the possibility of using a whole class of drugs that is already available; additionally, since [the proteins] can be found in blood and spinal fluid, this may lead to a test that could be used for early detection of Parkinson's."

Petsko and Ringe said that the drugs, or more specifically the compounds, may exist and will inhibit the pathway, which would prevent a protein from performing its function, but that the previous testing has been done only on cell models of Parkinson's. Petsko explained that the existing drugs cannot cross into the brain, over what is known as the blood-brain barrier. In drugs meant to treat other diseases, this is preferable because it lessens the risk of neurological side effects, but Petsko said that if the compounds can be used to treat Parkinson's, then they will need to be in the brain. He said that it will be necessary "either to find compounds that these drug companies discarded during their development because they got into the brain, . or, if not, we will have to make analogs of these drugs that are capable of passing into the brain."

Petsko credited Shulin Ju, a postdoctoral student at Brandeis, with doing most of the research work that constituted Brandeis' contribution to the study. In an interview with the Justice, Ju said that most of the work he has done has focused on the study of Parkinson's in a yeast model, which Ju said is a very simple model of a cell that can be easily manipulated to study the effects of Parkinson's disease on the cell and the therapeutic effects of certain compounds.

Like Petsko and Ringe, Ju expressed excitement that manipulation of the newly discovered pathway might be able to at least slow the progression of Parkinson's in some patients. "This [discovery] is obviously very significant," he said.

Petsko said that the next step in the research process, which has been going on for about a year, is to "test these ideas in animal models of the disease, and that's going to require developing better compounds."

"I think we want to try to understand why this pathway is involved in Parkinson's. We don't really understand the biochemistry of why this pathway influences the Parkinson's-related protein," added Petsko. He said that he expected this to be the focus of the research taking place at Brandeis, while most of the animal testing will be done at Columbia University.

Both Ringe and Petsko said that, even if something worked in animals, there is no guarantee it would work in or be safe for humans and that there is a long process to go through before any compounds might be safe for human use.