Cogane, a Future Treatment with Hope for a Parkinson's Disease Cure

Cogane Hold Promise for PD, Alzheimer's, ALS, Neuro-Motor and Psychiatric Disoders

It's taken awhile to get this article ready so our apologies to Ken and Hen.

According to Phytopharm, Cogane also known within the company as PYM50028, is a non-peptide orally bioavailable neurotropic factor inducer that crosses the blood-brain barrier. Cogane stimulates the release of neuronal growth factors and increases neurite outgrowth by elevating the levels of GDNF, glial derived neurotrophic factors. Cogane also increases the levels BDNF, brain derived neurotropic factor. Neurotrophic factors can aid the survival of neurons.

GDNF is a protein which has been encoded by the GDNF gene. In its recombitant form it has been shown to promote the survival of dopamine neurons for PD and motorneurons for ALS. GDNF also promotes the survival of serotoninergic and catecholamingeric neurons. The catecholamingeric neurons control a variety of cognitive, motor and endocrine functions. They are associated with many psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.

The hope for Cogane is that it lives up to its neuroprotective and neurorestorative potential with safety of use which means that while it might be not only a treatment as a PD progression reducer or even progression reversal, it might also be a cure. It may also become a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

The largest problem with bringing Cogane to the market is the enormous amounts of money that are needed to bring a drug through the requisite trials and application processes. Phytopharm has done a restructuring to reduce costs and to extend its available cash to September 2010. They are also considering other options and are also seeking grant funding. The Michael J Fox Foundation awarded a $1.16 million grant towards the dosage trials.  The phase 1 trials has been completed and phase 1b is currently recruiting. The Cure Parkinson's Trust partly funded the latest phase and has since committed to ongoing support to develop Cogane.

One important thing to note is that Phytopharm is not the only company working on the GDNF approach to treating Parkinson's disease. During the next few weeks we will provide information of the status of other GDNF research and development as well as clinical trials.

Good news for Phytopharm is that in March the stock tracking of PYM on London Stock Market was 4.25p Footse (down 3 days later to 4.13p) back again to 4.25p by 3/27/09. As of this morning, PYM was at 6.88p (up 1.93) Results of the Phase 1b trial are expected in the last quarter of 2009 and then Phytopharm can move on to Phase II.

Addendum - June 2010
Phase 1b has been completed and Phytopharm recently announced that they have received FDA protocol approval to begin Phase II clinical trials for Cogane.  Enrollment will begin in late 2010.  We'll be posting that information and links to enrollment when it is announced.

You can read the Phytopharm press release here  

Exercise for Parkinson's

Over the eight years that I've had Parkinson's disease I've learned lots of things but none more important than the need to get at least 20-30 minutes of exercise 6 or 7 days a week

Studies at the National Institute on Aging show that overeating and lack of exercise are not only risk factors for diabetics, cancer and cardiovascular problems,they also increase the risk of neurological diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Huntington's Disease and stroke.

Neurotrophic Factors

Other studies show that physical and mental activity can also increase neuroropic factor production. Neurotrophic Factors are small proteins in the brain that signal neuron cells to survive or grow. This means that dietary restriction and physical and mental exercise can reduce or slow neurocell death. Available data suggests that dietary restriction and physical and mental exercise may reduce the occurence and severity of neurodegenerative disease.

Physical Exercise

Before starting an exercise program check with you doctor about the exercises you can do, how long to do them and how hard they should be. You should start your exercise routine with warm ups and conclude with cooling down. I know you hear that all the time and you can skip that step if you enjoy muscle cramps. Exercise probably isn't going to keep your Parkinson's from progressing but it will help your balance and flexibility and it can help to reduce pain.

Any kind of exercise done regularly will help but make sure to include ones that can aid in improving your balance and that require you to move your limbs to their full range of motion.

You can also start a new hobbies which involve physical activity. Perhaps you'd like walking, gardening or swimming. I've done Yoga with my sister-in-law and am waiting for the next local Tai Chi class to begin.

What you don't want to do is to let those muscles atrophy while you dispair over having Parkinson's.

Flexing Exercise

Take a look in the mirror and say a few words to yourself. Loss of facial muscle tone
can affect your your ability to communicate fully as well as affecting the way you are perceived. So keep those facial muscles exercised too.

There are plenty of stretching and flexing exercises which you can find in the form of facial isometrics. You can also try singing or reading aloud. For fun and exercise, go back to the mirror and make faces at yourself. You'll be able to see and/or feel which muscles need to be worked. Continue to make those funny faces but hold each pose for at least 5-10 seconds.

And don't forget that simply chewing your food energetically will not only help your digestion but also exercise muscle groups of your face and neck. As an added benefit, spending more time chewing may decrease your caloric intake. and reduce swallowing difficulties.

Mental Exercise

Try doing a cross word puzzle each day or sudoko if you are a numbers person or even computer gaming. Don't be afraid to open yourself to new experiences, to make new friends. Even if you can't get out of the house that easily, you can expand your world of interest.
Checkout some brain exercises at: http://www.neurobics.com/exercise.html