QUOTE: Duke University chemists are developing ways to bind up iron in the brain to combat the neurological devastation of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. The key is to weed out potentially destructive forms of iron that generate harmful free radicals while leaving benign forms of iron alone to carry out vital functions in the body.
"Using existing chelating (metal-binding) molecules to target iron in the brain can be tricky," said Katherine Franz, an assistant chemistry professor at Duke, because iron is essential to the body. "We want to go after only the iron that is causing the damage. We don't want to pull the iron out of healthy sites..."
"That work looks promising," Franz said. "It looks like we're seeing iron binding only when we increase the levels of hydrogen peroxide. This level of peroxide normally kills cells, but we are seeing cell survival with the pro-chelators, so we're very excited." UNQUOTE.
Sounds wonderful, but this is what the "scientific establishment" is especial good at these days, that is, of talking about how the work they've done might soon lead to cures for all kinds of terrible "diseases." Yet the diseases only seem to get worse, or stay about the same, don't they? I understand that there is a "funding game" going on, but when do those in charge of the purse strings finally demand results within a given period of time? How many news stories have you heard over the last decade or so about "great discoveries" that might soon lead to "cures?" It's almost like a new kind of religion.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070823083702.htm |
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