Toronto team uses ultrasound to deliver Parkinson’s drug directly to patients' brains

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The Phase 1 clinical trial, conducted by researchers at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and University Health Network, is the first to test this technology

on Parkinson’s patients to deliver a therapeutic across the blood-brain barrier, the protective layer of densely packed cells surrounding the blood vessels of the brain. The barrier prevents harmful substances in the bloodstream from getting through, but also hampers efforts to administer therapeutic compounds, such as drugs, antibodies or stem cells, to affected brain tissue.

While the main objective of Phase 1 is to establish the safety of the treatment, this study builds on pioneering work at Sunnybrook, where researchers were the first in the world to use focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier of a living patient in 2015. In that trial, they delivered chemotherapy directly to the patient’s brain tumour.

Parkinson’s disease, typically characterized by tremors, muscle rigidity and slowed movement, affects roughly 100,000 Canadians, according to the charity Parkinson Canada. Current treatments, including medications and deep-brain stimulation, help manage the symptoms, but none yet reverses or stops the progression of the disease, says Julie Wysocki, director of research program and partnerships with Parkinson Canada.

“There’s a presumption that if we can actually stop it dead in its tracks at one point in the brain, we might actually not get transmission or spread to other parts of the brain,” she says.

 

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J’adore Canadian research & ingenuity. 🇨🇦

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