Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have devised a simple test, using dopamine-deficient worms, for identifying drugs that may help people with Parkinson’s disease.
The worms are able to evaluate as many as 1,000 potential drugs a year. The researchers have received federal funding that could increase that to one million drug tests a year.
In this video, Jon Pierce-Shimomura, assistant professor of neurobiology, describes the test that is based on the difficulty these “parkinsonian” C. elegans worms have in switching from swimming to crawling when they’re taken out of water.
Working with the university’s Office of Technology Commercialization, he’s filed a patent application for the worm model for testing of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
About half a million Americans suffer from Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. Early symptoms of the disease include shaking, rigidity, and slowness of movement. As it progresses, the physical symptoms can advance to the point of incapacity, and cognitive impairments, including early dementia, can arise as well.
