> New Parkinson model attracts international attention

> PET Scanner

Research conducted at the University of Sydney has attracted considerable attention in Salzburg, Austria, where this year's 8th International AD/PD (Alzheimer's/Parkinson's) Conference took place.
(See AlzForum news coverage: http://www.alzforum.org/new/detail.asp?id1573).

This conference was attended by 2,200 international experts working on all aspects of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease and related disorders. Among them was Professor Jürgen Götz, a Medical Foundation Fellow, who had joined the University of Sydney two years ago to take up the position as a director of the Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease Laboratory at the Brain and Mind Research Institute.

The research presented in Salzburg adds to his established track record in modelling Alzheimer's disease. It is no surprise, considering the significant clinical overlap of related neurodegenerative diseases that the researcher is also trying to understand what causes Parkinson's disease.

As highlighted by the AlzForum in a news coverage of the conference Jürgen Götz presented the first description of a (mouse) strain that is a surprisingly precise model of early-onset human Parkinsonism. It then moves on describing how Dr. Lars Ittner in Götz's group dissected the clinical features of this novel mouse model and identified the underlying patho-mechanism which is causing Parkinsonism in the mouse.

Between 4 and 6 weeks of age, and this is remarkably early, the mice develop all four classic motor symptoms of Parkinsonism: a resting tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia (i.e., slowness of voluntary movement), and postural instability.

Dr. Ittner found that the mice also respond to treatment with L-dopa, a drug used to treat Parkinson's patients. By contrast, the dopamine receptor agonist haloperidol weakened them further. Together, the symptoms and the drug response mimic Parkinsonism associated with different types of Frontotemporal dementia, where patients also develop Parkinsonism symptoms early on and initially benefit from dopaminergic treatment.

These findings have been well received among the peers as shown by further comments on the Alzforum website: Other researchers commented that the drug response might help drug developers validate this mouse model pharmacologically, and make it more practicable for drug screening studies than are some of the existing tau lines.

Prof. Götz and his team are currently using their mouse model to develop therapeutic strategies to treat Parkinson's disease.

This research was funded by the Medical Foundation, the New South Wales Government through the Ministry for Science and Medical Research (BioFirst Grant), the Mason Foundation, the NHMRC and the ARC.

The Brain & Mind Research Institute has taken delivery of a Philips PET scanner.

This specialized piece of equipment will enable scans of human subjects in order to study disorders such as Schizophrenia.

The PET scanner will be used for both clinical and basic research with newly developed imaging ligands currently being developed at the Brain & Mind Research Institute.

The purchase of this PET scanner as well as the future acquisition of a cyclotron will result in the University of Sydney becoming the only University in Australia with such a comprehensive molecular imaging facility.