One of the great challenges for treating Parkinson's diseases and other neurodegenerative disorders is getting medicine to the right place in the brain.

The brain is a complex organ with many different types of cells and structures, and it is fortified with a protective barrier erected by blood vessels and glial cells - the brain's structural building blocks - that effectively blocks the delivery of most drugs from the bloodstream.

But now scientists have found a new way to sneak drugs past the blood-brain barrier by engineering and implanting progenitor brain cells derived from stem cells to produce and deliver a critical growth factor that has already shown clinical promise for treating Parkinson's disease.CLICK TO READ

It has been a big problem for patients getting medicine to areas of the brain that need it most, but a new study in the Journal Gene Therapy, says researchers have created stem cells that can sneak past the blood-brain barrier, and deliver cells to the portions of the brain that are deteriorated. The stem cells were even able to stimulate the growth of new brain fibers there, which survived for up to three months.KCBD - NewsChannel 11 / CLICK TO READ

A preliminary study suggests that implants of cells from the human retina improved motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson disease, and they appear to be safe and well tolerated.CLICK TO READ

Adults who abuse cocaine might increase their risk of developing Parkinson’s disease (PD), and pregnant women who abuse cocaine could increase the risk of their children developing PD later in life, according to results of laboratory studies performed by investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The study’s findings are important because there are currently more than 2 million cocaine abusers in the US today, the researchers said. Many individuals who abused the drug during the height of the cocaine abuse epidemic of the 1970s and 1980s are now entering their older years, when symptoms of PD are likely to emerge.Evidence links cocaine abuse and Parkinson's disease

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