Worms provide a model for screening drugs for Parkinson's
Seniors who are concerned about saving money on their medical bills may be relieved to find they can buy cheaper equivalents of their medications through a Canadian internet pharmacy.
Seniors who are concerned about saving money on their medical bills may be relieved to find they can buy cheaper equivalents of their medications through a Canadian internet pharmacy. The number of drugs available through such businesses continues to grow as science proceeds to discover novel treatments. One lab is currently searching for ways to treat Parkinson's disease, assisted with the help of C. elegans.
A team of researchers from the University of Texas, Austin, is using these worms to study a phenomenon known as motor switching. These specially bred animals are deficient in the neurotransmitter dopamine, one of the underlying causes of Parkinsonian symptoms.
"We take these motor transitions for granted," said researcher Jon Pierce-Shimomura, "like getting up out of a chair or walking through a doorway from one surface to another. But people with Parkinson's have a terrible time with this...It looks like we have a very simple worm model for this now."
In the case of the worms, this process involves switching from swimming to crawling. The researchers conduct a series of experiments in which the worms attempt to make the motor switch in the presence of a test drug. If they are able to go from swimming to crawling after treatment with the drug, the scientists may have identified a candidate for treating Parkinson's disease.
With a new federal grant, the team projects that it may be able to test a million possible medications with this model.
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