January 2025 Newsletter
This month we heard from Dr. Bryan Yamamoto, Ph.D, who presented on his research “Parkinson’s Therapeutics: Research from the Bottom Up”. Dr. Yamamoto is a former chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Indiana University School of Medicine, as well as the former chair and professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Toledo College of Medicine.
Dr. Yamamoto discussed the differences in Pharmacy vs. Pharmacology. The main distinction is that pharmacy is the supply and administration of medicines, while pharmacology studies how drugs interact with biological targets and aids the development of drugs for medical treatments. He also discussed the length of time it takes to develop, study, and get medication on the market. The discovery and development process is 2-10 years, then pre-clinical (animal/cell testing) is 3-6 years, then clinical trials are ~7 years, and then finally on the market takes about 13-14 years.
Dr. Yamamoto put the length of time to discover and distribute medication with the example of the L-Dopa Story. Studies began in 1939, but it was not until 1971 that efficacy was proven with the combination of carbidopa and levodopa to reverse the loss of movement. Dr. Yamamoto also discussed the development and use of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in PD patients.
In addition to discussing the efficacy and effects of levodopa and DBS, Dr. Yamamoto emphasized that exercise is one of the most important Parkinson’s Disease (PD) symptom management tools. It improves your heart, muscle and bone health, lung function. Not to mention the benefits on cognitive and mental health! It also reduces the risks of fractures with falls. Research has shown that it can slow disease progression and even improve symptoms.
Dr. Yamamoto discussed possible therapeutics that are on the horizon. These include studying the causes of dopamine cell death, discovering PD-related genes and mutations or underactivity, the repurposing of existing drugs, as well as cell replacement / stem cell therapy. This can all help with early detection and slowing the progression. He stressed that there is always hope!