Treating Parkinson’s disease with gene therapy has been shown to be successful in clinical trials for the first time, say US researchers.

The illness causes uncontrolled shaking, stiffness and slow movement as part of the brain dies.

The small study in The Lancet Neurology used a virus to add genes to brain cells, which resulted in reduced symptoms for half of patients.

Parkinson’s UK welcomed the study, but said further research was needed.

The disease affects 120,000 people in the UK, mostly in the over-50s.

There is no cure, although drugs and deep brain stimulation have been shown to reduce symptoms.

Gene treatment
Patients with Parkinson’s have reduced levels of a chemical – GABA – in part of the brain known as the subthalamic nucleus.

The researchers created a virus which “infects” cells with a gene to increase GABA production.

In the trial, 22 patients had the virus injected into their brains while 23 patients had “sham surgery”, to make them think they had the virus injected.

Their motor function was then scored over six months.

Patients who had gene therapy showed a 23.1% improvement in their motor score, those with sham surgery improved by 12.7%.

The report’s authors say this “offers a novel alternative to conventional pharmacological or surgical treatment” and that it “shows the promise of gene therapy for other neurological disorders.”

Professor Nicholas Mazarakis, who is a specialist in gene therapy at Imperial College London, told the BBC that the positive result was “very encouraging.”

He added: “This result should be taken with some caution though, as it constitutes a rather small mean improvement, only 10.4%, in the clinical rating scale motor scores between those patients receiving the gene therapy and the placebo group.”

In addition the absence of significant improvements in other secondary outcome measures such as dyskinesia and quality of life between the two groups, warrants further long-term evaluation of this treatment in more patients.”

There have been concerns about the safety of gene therapy. In 1999, Jesse Gelsinger died during a trial in the US and there were cases of leukaemia after treatment in France.

The authors say this procedure is safe.

Dr Michelle Gardner, research development manager at Parkinson’s UK, said: “This research shows the promise of gene therapy for neurological conditions like Parkinson’s, but further research is still needed.

“We still don’t know for how long the benefits of this treatment may last, or whether there may be long-term problems due to introducing viruses into the brain.

“In addition, any new treatment must be shown to be more effective than those currently available for Parkinson’s, which this treatment has not yet been shown to do.”

Research has found the benefits to exist whether or not the language was learned during childhood or not. Learning a second language at any point in life may combat brain decline just as well.

The study explains that individuals who spoke just one language started experiencing symptoms of dementia more than 5 years sooner than individuals who were bi-lingual. Additionally, full-blown Alzheimer’s was diagnosed more than 4 years earlier for those who knew just one language.

While this study appears to show many benefits of being bi-lingual, other studies have suggested otherwise. While results have not been concluded, preliminary results allude to the fact that overall brain function is affected very little whether the individual can speak one or two languages.

Researchers are skeptical about the second study, however, as many believe keeping the brain active may effectively help it combat dementia-like symptoms.

One way to keep the brain active — learn a second language.

Experts explain that the consistent mental battle about various rules in each language is enough to keep the brain active for individuals who speak two languages.

Additional research is to be conducted about these findings.

Men diagnosed with prostate cancer may be able to reduce their risk of death not just from prostate cancer but from any cause by exercising vigorously for at least three hours per week, new research indicates.

A study performed by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of California-San Francisco examined the records of 2,705 men who had been diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer over an 18-year period in a project known as the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. The men in the study reported the time they spent exercising on a weekly basis. This included running, bicycling, walking, swimming, other sports, and even outdoor work.

Non-vigorous and vigorous activity proved beneficial for overall survival, the study says.

Men who walked less than 90 minutes per week at a normal to brisk pace had a 46% lower risk of dying from any cause compared to men who walked less than 90 minutes per week.

Men who reported vigorous activity for at least three hours per week had a 61% lower risk of a prostate cancer-specific death, compared with men who exercised for less than an hour per week.

“Our results suggest that men can reduce their risk of prostate cancer progression after a diagnosis of prostate cancer by adding physical activity to their daily routine,” study author Stacey Kenfield of Harvard says in a news release. “This is good news for men living with prostate cancer who wonder what lifestyle practices to follow to improve cancer survival.”

Some Exercise Better Than No Exercise
She says the researchers “observed benefits at very attainable levels of activity” and that the study suggests that men with prostate cancer “should do some physical activity for their overall health, even if it is a small amount, such as 15 minutes of activity per day of walking, jogging, biking, or gardening.”

She says, however, that “doing vigorous activity for three or more hours per week may be especially beneficial for prostate cancer, as well as overall health.”

The results are significant because prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men in the United States. Although more than 80% of prostate cancer patients are diagnosed with localized disease, the relative 10-year survival rate is 93% for all stages combined.

More than 2 million men in the U.S. are prostate cancer survivors.

“We observed a significant risk reduction for prostate cancer mortality with increasing vigorous activity,” the authors write.

They say more research is needed to determine which exercise regimens are best for men with prostate cancer.

Michigan and Connecticut are the latest two states which reported their first deaths on Wednesday.

The Michigan Department of Community Health has confirmed that the state’s first death of A/H1N1 flu involved a 53-year-old woman, who died on Tuesday in a hospital in Macomb County after being sick for more than two weeks.

“This is sad and unfortunate. But, at the same time, we do expect a number of deaths (nationally) following the infection from this virus,” James McCurtis, a spokesman for the department, said on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, Michigan reported 298 confirmed cases of A/H1N1 flu statewide, comparing to 287 cases released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on its website.

Meanwhile, the Connecticut Department of Public Health on Wednesday announced that a resident aged over 50 has become the first person in the state to die from the A/H1N1 flu.

Confirmed cases of the A/H1N1 flu in the state has jumped to 397, almost double the figure of 197 released by the CDC on its website, the department said.

Officials said the actual number might be much higher because many people with mild symptoms do not go to a doctor or hospital.

New York and Illinois are the two states which reported on Wednesday more deaths from the A/H1N1 flu virus. The New York health department said that two more New Yorkers have been killed by the virus, bringing the state’s death toll to seven.

In Chicago, Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold declared that a 22-year-old Chicago woman has died from complications of the A/H1N1 flu one day after she gave birth, bringing the number of Illinois deaths related to the virus to four.

The state health department has reported 1,268 confirmed cases of the A/H1N1 flu statewide, comparing to 1,151 cases released by the CDC on its website on Wednesday.

Nationwide, the CDC has reported 17 deaths from the A/H1N1 virus in seven states, not including four deaths reported by local health officials on Tuesday — the first two deaths in California, the first death in Virginia and the fifth death in New York.

On Wednesday, the CDC also reported 11,054 confirmed cases of the A/H1N1 flu in all 51 states.

The agency anticipates more cases, hospitalizations and deaths associated with this new virus in the coming days and weeks.

Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or they have been exposed to asbestos dust and fiber in other ways. Washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos can also put a person at risk for developing mesothelioma.[2] Unlike lung cancer, there is no association between mesothelioma and smoking, but smoking greatly increases risk of other asbestos-induced cancer.[3] Compensation via asbestos funds or lawsuits is an important issue in mesothelioma (see asbestos and the law).

The symptoms of mesothelioma include shortness of breath due to pleural effusion (fluid between the lung and the chest wall) or chest wall pain, and general symptoms such as weight loss. The diagnosis may be suspected with chest X-ray and CT scan, and is confirmed with a biopsy (tissue sample) and microscopic examination. A thoracoscopy (inserting a tube with a camera into the chest) can be used to take biopsies. It allows the introduction of substances such as talc to obliterate the pleural space (called pleurodesis), which prevents more fluid from accumulating and pressing on the lung. Despite treatment with chemotherapy, radiation therapy or sometimes surgery, the disease carries a poor prognosis. Research about screening tests for the early detection of mesothelioma is ongoing.

Signs and symptoms
Symptoms of mesothelioma may not appear until 20 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos. Shortness of breath, cough, and pain in the chest due to an accumulation of fluid in the pleural space are often symptoms of pleural mesothelioma.

Symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include weight loss and cachexia, abdominal swelling and pain due to ascites (a buildup of fluid in the abdominal cavity). Other symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma may include bowel obstruction, blood clotting abnormalities, anemia, and fever. If the cancer has spread beyond the mesothelium to other parts of the body, symptoms may include pain, trouble swallowing, or swelling of the neck or face.

These symptoms may be caused by mesothelioma or by other, less serious conditions.

Mesothelioma that affects the pleura can cause these signs and symptoms:

chest wall pain
pleural effusion, or fluid surrounding the lung
shortness of breath
fatigue or anemia
wheezing, hoarseness, or cough
blood in the sputum (fluid) coughed up (hemoptysis)
In severe cases, the person may have many tumor masses. The individual may develop a pneumothorax, or collapse of the lung. The disease may metastasize, or spread, to other parts of the body.

Tumors that affect the abdominal cavity often do not cause symptoms until they are at a late stage. Symptoms include:

abdominal pain
ascites, or an abnormal buildup of fluid in the abdomen
a mass in the abdomen
problems with bowel function
weight loss
In severe cases of the disease, the following signs and symptoms may be present:

blood clots in the veins, which may cause thrombophlebitis
disseminated intravascular coagulation, a disorder causing severe bleeding in many body organs
jaundice, or yellowing of the eyes and skin
low blood sugar level
pleural effusion
pulmonary emboli, or blood clots in the arteries of the lungs
severe ascites
A mesothelioma does not usually spread to the bone, brain, or adrenal glands. Pleural tumors are usually found only on one side of the lungs.