Last summer a 55-year-old man named Nathan Klein underwent a radical procedure to combat Parkinson’s disease -a hole was drilled into his head, and approximately three billion viruses were injected into his brain. Why would anyone want to be the first person to undergo such a drastic procedure?
Klein said that he simply wanted his life back, and, in the process, hoped to help others who suffer from Parkinson’s. When medication stopped working for him, he evaluated his options: either undergo surgery that involved planting electrodes in his brain or be the first to try the virus injection treatment. The harmless viruses, which carried therapeutic genetic material and did not produce a strong immune system response, were injected into the part of the brain affected by the disease. This genetic material produced a chemical to quiet down this brain region, which may reduce his symptoms. In recent gene therapy experiments with rat models of HD, researchers used harmless viruses to deliver helpful molecules called neurotrophic factors to the nerve cells of the brain (please click here: Gene Therapy Successful in HD Rats for more information).
Since the brain does not contain pain receptors, Klein was awake for the entire five-hour procedure and felt no discomfort. It is best for the patient to be conscious during this type of surgery so that the doctors can constantly monitor his or her neurological status (in other words, keep track of the state of his brain’s health at all times). Two days later, he was doing well-his MRI was normal, and he felt fine. He was soon released from the hospital and returned home to his family. If the procedure was successful in alleviating the symptoms of Parkinson’s, doctors will consider performing this surgery on other patients in the future. Perhaps even those with other neurodegenerative disorders like Huntington’s will eventually benefit from this technique.
Last Modified: 05/22/2009
An educational product of HOPES, not to be used in place of medical care. For more information about HOPES, click on the Logo.
To contact HOPES with comments or questions, click here.
