Smoking Cessation Drug May Treat Parkinsons In Women
Texas A& M University College of Medicine researchers have recently discovered that cytisine a smoking cessation drug commonly used in Europe reduces the loss of dopamine neurons in females. These findings provide potential evidence for the use of the drug to treat Parkinsons disease or stop its progression in women.
Sara Zarate and Gauri Pandey, graduate students from the lab of Rahul Srinivasan, assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics, are co-first authors of the research. Their findings are published in the Journal of Neurochemistry.
There are approximately 10 million people worldwide living with Parkinsons disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that leads to a variety of symptoms that can include difficulty walking, tremors, shaking and others unrelated to movement. These symptoms start to develop when at least 50 percent of dopamine neurons in an individuals brain are dead or impaired. Currently, there is no cure for Parkinsons and no treatment that can stop or prevent the loss of these dopamine neurons that are needed for the body to move.
About a decade ago, Srinivasan became interested in trying to understand why smokers and people who consume tobacco chronically are at a lower risk for developing Parkinsons disease.
Although their findings currently only apply to females, Srinivasan hopes to find solutions for males and postmenopausal females, too.
Will I Be Able To Continue At Work And Should I Tell My Employer
As with most things to do with Parkinsons, how it affects your work will be a very individual matter. You may have a very good relationship with your employer and so may want to be honest with them about your Parkinsons. You will need to think about how your work will affect you physically, especially if you have a demanding job. You may also find working becomes more challenging as the symptoms progress.
In short, there is no standard reply. Many people continue to work for years whilst others find that the illness progression or the nature of their job makes it harder to continue working for long.
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In Vitro Cell Culture Experiments
Immortalized fibroblasts
Mouse embryonic fibroblasts were cultured in DMEM supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum and penicillin/streptomycin antibiotics. The immortalized WT and SIRT6 null fibroblasts were previously generated in the laboratory of and are a generous gift from Dr. Raul Mostoslvasky.
Primary neuronal cultures
Primary neurons were isolated from P0 mouse pups by a standard protocol modified for our study. Briefly, after dissection of neonatal brains, cortices were minced and digested in papain for 30 min at 30Co temperature. After that the solution was filtered through a 100 m filter and then fractionated in a sucrose gradient. The gradient fractions containing neurons were collected and re-suspended in Neurobasal Media, and cells were counted and plated on poly-D-lysine coated plates. The neurons were cultured in Neurobasal Media with physiological concentrations of glucose at physiological concentrations of oxygen and supplemented with bFGF and B27. Cultures were treated and analyzed 7 days after plating. Histochemical analysis performed on every batch of cells confirmed that cells were comprised of 75% neurons and 25% astrocytes. Proportions were identified by flow cytometry with the markers- NeuN and GFAP respectively . The neuron population included tyrosine hydroxylase expressing cells confirmed by SDS-PAGE analysis. Proportion of neural cell types were not changed between WT, SIRT6 KO, and OX cultures.
Flow cytometry & apoptosis analysis
Nicotine
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Tobacco Coffee And Parkinsons Disease
This article has been corrected.
Parkinsons disease belongs to that small group of conditions that occur less often among cigarette smokers than in non-smokers. The observation was first made in a case-control study over 30 years ago, but, as Hernán and colleagues have shown in their recent systematic review and meta-analysis, the finding has been replicated many times. The protective effect is largeaccording to the pooled data, current smokers have a 60% reduction in risk compared with those who have never smokedand consistent between studies in different settings. The fact that two very large prospective studies found a similar reduction in risk to that seen in retrospective studies rules out the possibility that the association can be accounted for by differential survival between smokers and non-smokers. Coffee drinking too, seems to protect against Parkinsons disease. Here the pooled estimate is a 30% reduction in risk for coffee drinkers compared with non-drinkers.
One unachieved goal in the treatment of Parkinsons disease is preventing it getting worse. If, as the epidemiological evidence implies, caffeine and nicotine are neuroprotective, some of the new pharmacological treatments currently being developed, such as adenosine A2A receptor blockers and nicotinic agonists, might not only improve symptoms but slow the relentless progression of the disease.
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Strategies To Minimize Reverse Causality Bias
The impact of reverse causality bias in observational studies can be minimized by ensuring that information about exposures is collected before the onset of the disease excluding participants with previous disease at enrollment and excluding a relevant period of early follow-up to minimize distortion of results by cases of disease that were undetected at enrollment. Hence, the first 10 years of follow-up were excluded from all analyses to minimize the effects of reverse causality bias.,,
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Does Alcohol Interfere With Sinemet
I am not sure . Im on sinamet , but I drink rarely and I have not noticed any effect.
Thanks I like to enjoy a few beers and I didnt want it to effect my on-off times.
Alcohol interfere? LOL!!!
J/K, Ive actually become a light weight2 drinks and I am done for, lol!
Does save on the beer tab!
Steve
I drink about 6 beers a day. I havent had any problems.
i have just checked all the cartons and info leaflets for my PD meds. not 1 mentions alcohol so i will take that as a no, but i will temper that wit the comment that if i have more than 1 pint or 1 short, my reaction to alcohol is much more than ever before PD, and faster, too. and i get hangovers now after 2 drinks . and i object to renting the booze for short times, when everybody else gets at least another hour at the same cost
Foods That Are Hard To Chew
Many people with Parkinsons have difficulty with chewing and swallowing foods. A person needs medical help if this is the case. A speech and language therapist may be able to help a person overcome this issue.
However, if a person is finding certain foods hard to chew and swallow, they may wish to avoid these foods.
Such foods include:
- dry, crumbly foods
- tough or chewy meats
If a person does wish to eat chewy meats, they could try using gravy or sauce to soften them and make eating easier.
They could also try chopping meat into smaller pieces or incorporating meat into casseroles, which can make it more tender.
Having a drink with a meal can also make chewing and swallowing easier.
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Linking Smoking Coffee Urate And Parkinsons Disease A Role For Gut Microbiota
Article type: Research Article
Authors: Scheperjans, Filipa * | Pekkonen, Eeroa | Kaakkola, Seppoa | Auvinen, Petrib
Affiliations: Department of Neurology, Helsinki University Hospital and Department of Clinical Neurosciences , University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland | Institute of Biotechnology, DNA Sequencing and Genomics Laboratory, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Correspondence: Correspondence to: Filip Scheperjans, Department ofNeurology, Helsinki University Hospital, Haartmaninkatu 4, 00290 Helsinki. Tel.: +358 9 4711 Fax: +358 9 47174089 E-mail:
Keywords: Gut-brain axis, risk factors, non-motor symptoms, gut motility, constipation, nicotine, caffeine, inflammation, gut permeability, dietary fiber
DOI: 10.3233/JPD-150557
Journal: Journal of Parkinson’s Disease, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 255-262, 2015
Abstract
Can Drinking Alcohol Cause Bad Kidneys
Can drinking alcohol cause bad kidneys? Binge drinking can raise a persons blood alcohol to dangerous levels. This can cause a sudden drop in kidney function known as acute kidney injury ..
Can your kidney really handle alcohol? While the kidneys do have the capacity to process alcohol, it is to a limited extent. When you drink a significant amount, the kidneys are required to work more for longer durations. This leads to an increase in the frequency of urination and can result in dehydration.
What foods to avoid with kidney disease? Avoid Avocados while on a renal diet! Bananas. Cantaloupe. Dates, Raisins and Prunes are also among the harmful foods for kidneys for those with kidney disease. Fresh Pears. Honeydew melon, Kiwis, kumquats, star fruit, mangoes and papaya. Nectarines, oranges, orange juice, pomegranates.
Can alcohol cause permanent organ damage? Heavy drinking and binge drinking can result in permanent damage to the brain and nervous system . Essentially, alcohol is a toxin. Thus, its primary impact on the body especially when consumed excessively is harmful.
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Association Between Cigarette Smoking And Parkinsons Disease: A Meta
The results demonstrated the inverse association between cigarette smoking and the risk of PD.
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In stratified analyses, the protective effect of smoking against PD was relatively greater in men than in women, and a significant inverse doseresponse relationship was observed for pack-years smoked.
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Several mechanisms for the protective effect of smoking on PD were summarized.
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We suggest the effective drugs might be developed from tobacco or tobacco smoke.
Nicotine Promotes An Increase In Survival Even When Treatment Begins In Aged Animals
We then decided to determine whether nicotine has a long-lasting effect even if treatment is suspended when flies age. We also studied whether starting the nicotine treatment in older animals is still effective at promoting fly survival. We determined that the half-life of animals that express Sph-1 is 60 days at this age, parkinsonian phenotypes are evident and there is an important decrease in the number of dopaminergic neurons . To determine if nicotine has a long-lasting effect even if treatment is suspended, we chronically treated Sph-1 expressing flies for 60 days and then suspended the treatment in this condition, a significant lifespan extension was observed compared with animals that were never nicotine fed . Interestingly, files that were not treated with nicotine for the first 60 days of their life and then received nicotine also had a significant extension of their lifespan . These results indicate that in the PD genotype nicotine has a beneficial effect on survival even when the drug is provided at older age, when the parkinsonian symptoms are already evident. Importantly, this effect appears to be very specific as suspension of the nicotine treatment slightly decreases flies survival.
Figure 7
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What Is Medical Marijuana
Medical marijuana is cannabis that’s prescribed by a physician to treat or provide relief for a medical condition.
There are around 400 chemicals in the cannabis plant, and more than 60 of them are referred to as cannabinoids. The high marijuana users get is primarily due to the most psychoactive cannabinoid in the plant called tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
Cannabinol, or CBD, is the other cannabinoid, which is used in medical marijuana. CBD does not cause a high when taken alone and, in fact, moderates the psychoactive effects. Research is being done to determine how medical marijuana can help treat or relieve symptoms of various diseases, including Parkinson’s disease.
Case Ascertainment And Sample Size
A total of 881 PD cases was ascertained in the participating EPIC centres. The present analysis has been conducted on a total sample of 214533 subjects after removing 147 prevalent PD cases, 5359 subjects with missing information on smoking status at recruitment. Moreover, 221 subjects with PD-like conditions were also removed from the analysis. The sample resulted in a total of 2666206 person/years. Procedures for PD case ascertainment in the EPIC cohort have been described elsewhere. In brief, in each centre, potential cases were identified through record linkage and validated through clinical record review by a neurologist expert in movement disorder who collected additional clinical data, including age of onset and clinical subtype at onset .
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Dementia Or Alzheimers Like Phenotypes
Expression of TLR7, HMGB1, and microglia activation marker are increased in post-mortem human alcoholic hippocampal tissue and expression of TLR7 was correlated with alcohol intake. Consistent with human findings, TLR7, HMGB1, IL-1, TNF-, and let-b are also highly expressed in rat HEC brain slice culture following alcohol intake. Alcohol increased the release of let-7b in microglia-derived microvesicles and binding of let-7b to the chaperone HMGB1 and DAMP, and reduced the binding of let-7b to its classical target, Ago2. Together, the findings suggest that alcohol may mediate hippocampal neurodegeneration via let-7b/HMGB1/TLR7-associated signaling pathways . MicroRNA let-7b is highly expressed in CSF of AD patients . Intrathecal injection of CSF from AD patients into the CSF of wild-type mice resulted in neurodegeneration, whereas injection into CSF of mice lacking TLR7 did not result in neurodegeneration, suggesting the pivotal role of microRNAs such as let-7b in TLR7 signaling mediated CNS damage .
Medical Marijuana As A Treatment For Parkinsons Symptoms
Parkinsons disease is a disorder of the central nervous system that causes tremors, slow movement, stiffness, and loss of balance. Because marijuana directly affects the central and peripheral nervous systems, scientists have studied the effect of marijuana as a treatment for Parkinsons symptoms.
A 2020 review of 14 different studies acknowledged evidence that medical marijuana provides a reduction in anxiety, tremors, and involuntary or erratic movements. However, the researchers concluded that there is insufficient evidence to recommend medical marijuana use as part of Parkinson’s treatment.
A 2017 study with patients who used medical marijuana over three months to manage Parkinson’s symptoms found that the treatment improved their symptoms and did not cause major adverse effects.
Other research has shown that medical marijuana may be able to help with some Parkinsons disease symptoms, including:
- Smoking
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Relations Between Smoking And Gut Microbiota And Their Relevance For Gut Inflammation And Permeability
In summary, smoking affects gut microbiome composition and this seems to go along with improved barrier function and anti-inflammatory effects in the colonic mucosa. It remains to be established whether these simultaneous changes are causally related to each other and eventually to PD. Also a possible reverse effect of gut microbiota on smoking propensity and its relevance for PD is an interesting field for future studies.
The Triangle Of Coffee Gut Motility And Microbiota Is It Relevant For Gut Dysfunction In Pd
Regarding coffee the best documented effects on the gastrointestinal tract are promotion of gastro-oesophageal reflux, stimulation of gallbladder contraction and an increase of colonic motor activity . Distal colonic motility increases as early as 4 minutes after coffee ingestion . These effects are unlikely mediated by caffeine, instead an indirect action on the colon mediated by neural mechanisms or gastrointestinal hormones has been suspected. Coffee consumption is also inversely associated with the prevalence of self-reported constipation . Some effects of coffee might be related to constituents such as alkaloids, phenolic compounds, fibers, and minerals.Dietary fiber contained in coffee has marked effects on gut microbiota. It is rapidly metabolized intoSCFAs and causes a marked expansion of Bacteroides/Prevotella bacteria . In vivo, one study found a decrease of Bacteroides after coffee consumption while another did not find changes of Bacteroides/Prevotella . This could, however, indicate an expansion of Prevotella bacteria since their abundance is inversely associated with that of Bacteroides . In vivo, coffee caused an increase of anti-inflammatory Bifidobacteria and a decrease of Clostridium spp. and Escherichia coli that invade the gut mucosa in PD.
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Just One Alcoholic Drink A Day Could Lead To Alzheimers Or Parkinsons Disease
OXFORD, United Kingdom Just one small glass of wine each day could lead to the onset of Alzheimers or Parkinsons disease, new research warns.
Specifically, researchers from the University of Oxford say consuming just seven units of alcohol a week half the recommended maximum fuels iron accumulation in the brain. They add that alcohol suppresses a hormone that controls the bodys absorption of the mineral, causing poorer brain performance.
In the largest study to date, we found drinking greater than 7 units of alcohol weekly associated with iron accumulation in the brain. Higher brain iron in turn linked to poorer cognitive performance. Iron accumulation could underlie alcohol-related cognitive decline, says lead author Dr. Anya Topiwala from the University of Oxford in a media release.
Dementia patients have been found to have higher levels of iron in some regions, including deep grey matter. The same pattern has been found in people with Parkinsons another brain disorder which causes tremors, stiffness, and loss of balance.
Studies have connected cognitive decline to the formation of rogue proteins known as amyloid beta which clump together and create harmful plaques which kill neurons. Iron from the blood is essential for brain functioning, but it needs to be tightly regulated.
Does Parkinsons Disease Protect From Smoking
What if cigarette smoking does not actually confer a positive biological effect on the brain to protect from PD, but rather some aspect of PD biology leads to less of a tendency to smoke? Dopamine is the main addiction chemical in the brain, so it stands to reason that in a PD brain, with a reduced amount of dopamine, there will be less of a tendency for addiction. Other hypotheses suggest that people with PD may have alterations in how their brains utilize nicotine, or how the nicotine interacts with the dopaminergic neurons, leading to less of a tendency to become addicted to it.
This possibility was explored in a paper that demonstrated that people with PD who did smoke found it easier to quit smoking as compared to controls, and people with PD utilized reduced amounts of nicotine substitutes in order to quit as compared to controls. This suggested that people with PD have a less intense addiction than controls, leading to the overall decreased smoking rates.
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