Preidt (2021) covered the gene therapy trials that were conducted on mice in an attempt to improve the impact of Levodopa on patients with Parkinson’s disease on usnews.com. Researchers have been attempting to find a treatment for late-stage Parkinson’s disease. Currently, the drug Levodopa is being used as a treatment, but it loses effectiveness as the disease progresses. A test was done on mice to test how gene therapy would impact the effectiveness of Levodopa on late-stage Parkinson’s disease. Researchers found that this treatment was effective; however, it is still undetermined if the treatment will be equally as effective on humans as it was on the mice. The goal of this new technology is to be able to better treat the disease earlier and slow the disease process.

            Nutt (2020) confirms the information that was given in the popular source in his peer reviewed article. The article further explains that as Parkinson’s disease progresses, the effectiveness of Levodopa decreases dramatically. It was reported that, according to the Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale, the motor score of the patients that received the gene therapy treatments increased their motor score by one hundred sixty-eight percent. Levodopa alone is an effective treatment in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease because it provides the body with the precursor of dopamine which dramatically lessens the severity of the motor symptoms. The amount of the enzyme that facilitates the production of dopamine from Levodopa, L-amino acid decarboxylase, decreases as Parkinson’s disease progresses, which is why Levodopa becomes less effective. The gene therapy treatment that was tested provided an alternative route for dopamine to be made. This treatment unfortunately includes some negative side effects including psychiatric issues and hallucinations. One point that Nutt (2020) makes that contradicts the article written by Preidt (2021) is that this type of therapy has been tested in humans, so researchers have been able to observe the effects on the human body instead of just mice. Researchers noted that the treatment seemed to be effective in lessening the motor impairments caused by Parkinson’s disease in late-stage patients. 

            Nutt (2020) described that the results of the experiment were solely due to the effects of the gene therapy treatments on the patients. The patients were taken off of all other medications that are used to control the effects of Parkinson’s disease. There were only thirteen participants in the study, so the population that was examined was limited. Trials with a larger number of patients will be required in order to further proved the effectiveness of the treatment. Of the thirteen participants, only five reported the negative effects that were previously mentioned. The motor symptoms of the disease were observed in patients after the levodopa wore off, but this happened in different time periods for each patient. The treatment seemed to lessen the motor symptoms with the lower dose of levodopa and the higher dose; however, the higher dose allowed the patients to have decreased motor symptoms for a longer period of time. 

            These articles relate to genetics because Parkinson’s disease is a genetic disorder. The treatments that are described above are manipulating the genes in the human body in order to lessen the effects of Parkinson’s disease. If the genes can be altered to continually produce L-amino acid decarboxylase, then researchers may be on the path to curing Parkinson’s disease. 

References

Nutt, J. G. et al. Aromatic L-Amino acid decarboxylase gene therapy enhances levodopa 

response in parkinson’s disease. Movement Disorders 35, 851-858 (2020).

Preidt, R. Mouse study offershope for gene therapy against parkinson’s disease. 

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-11-04/mouse-study-offers-

hope-for-gene-therapy-against-parkinsons-disease (2021).