GRAND RAPIDS ? A $400,000 grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research is helping researchers from Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine, Van Andel Research Institute, and the Translational Genomics Research Institute investigate a drug that has the potential to not only alleviate Parkinson?s symptoms, but also to halt the disease’s progression.
The Fox Foundation donation is part of $2.4 million in funding the foundation awarded this week.
Researchers are focusing on the drug Fasudil, which is currently approved in Japan to improve blood flow to the brain in stroke victims and has shown similar positive outcomes in U.S. late-stage clinical trials.
In 2009, investigators from TGen and Arizona State University reported that a form of Fasudil had the potential to help improve learning and memory and also reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. VARI investigators recently discovered the potential of the drug in Parkinson?s as part of a project testing drugs that reduce the toxicity caused by a defective PARK1 gene, a gene implicated in Parkinson?s disease.
?The potential of this drug is exciting not only because it could halt disease progression where other treatments only provide symptomatic relief, but also because of how quickly it could be made available to patients,? said Jeffrey P. MacKeigan, Ph.D., head of VARI?s Laboratory of Systems Biology and co-investigator of the project with Caryl E. Sortwell, Ph.D., MSU College of Human Medicine Professor in the Division of Translational Science and Molecular Medicine.
?Fasudil has a very favorable safety profile in humans and is already available in Japan as an oral tablet, so upon successful milestone completion we could be seeing clinical trials within two to three years>?
?The development of new drugs is expensive and time-consuming,? said Kuldip Dave, Ph.D., associate director of research programs at MJFF. ?In fall 2010, MJFF launched our inaugural repositioning RFA to address these realities, and to attempt to reduce the time and costs involved in finding drugs that could help people living with Parkinson?s.?
The next step in the project is for researchers from MSU to validate the therapeutic use of Fasudil in disease models of Parkinson?s. Ultimately, the goal is to determine whether Fasudil has the therapeutic potential to protect and restore degenerating neurons in Parkinson?s.
“This collaboration highlights the strength of strategically aligning teams from two research organizations with different skill sets,? said MSU?s Sortwell. ?The Van Andel/TGen team has expertise in cell biology and proteomics, while our researchers have extensive experience in Parkinson’s disease systems biology and modeling. Together both organizations share the goal of helping those afflicted with PD to live better lives as a result of their respective research programs.”
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