Transcript - Dr David Dexter interview on Parkinson's UK Brain Bank
Dr David Dexter, Scientific Director of the Parkinson's UK Brain Bank, describes the work of
the Brain Bank.
Dr David Dexter interview on Parkinson's UK Brain
Bank
The Parkinson's Disease Society [now Parkinson's UK] Brain Bank is
located at Imperial College, London and is funded by the
Parkinson's Disease Society. It functions as one of the largest
national tissue resources for researches researching into
Parkinson's disease and other Parkinson's related disorders.
Looking at the brains of people who have been affected by
Parkinson's disease is essential if we’re going to find out what's
actually going wrong in the disease.
So far donated human tissue has helped research in a number of
ways. Firstly, it led to the discovery of one of the major drugs
used to treat Parkinson's disease, namely L-dopa (levodopa). The
donated human tissue showed that there was a deficiency in dopamine
and then this led to the discovery of a precursor, i.e. that L-dopa
could be used to treat Parkinson's.
In the future the donated tissue is going to help us understand
the mechanisms behind Parkinson's disease, which will lead to
better drug treatments and a better clinical management of the
disease.
The registration process itself is quite simple. The donor and
the next of kin simply sign a set of consent forms and then they
carry a donor card. When a donor dies the next or kin or hospital
that they are actually located in contacts the tissue bank and we
arrange with the local mortuaries, who take the tissue for us and
then one of our team goes up to the hospital to collect the tissue
and bring it back here for further dissection.
Once the brain comes back here basically we divide the brain
into two halves. The first half we slice into thick sections and
then snap freeze it, so that it's preserved in a very good nature
so that research can be carried out on the tissue. The other half
we placed in a fixative, and then again we take different regions
of the brain and then in order to look at the different cells we
take very thin sections and stain them with various different
staining techniques.
Using these techniques allows us to diagnose whether the person
had Parkinson's disease or whether they had a different Parkinson's
disorder during life.
Once we've made the diagnosis on the tissue that comes in, the
tissue is then available for researchers. Each brain can supply a
number of research projects, but it depends on the type of tissue
the researchers request. If they are looking for tissue sections
each brain can supply many research projects around the UK and also
worldwide.
Basically anyone can sign up to the Brain Donor Register, and
it's important that we have people affected by the condition and
also those who are 'normal' healthy individuals, because it's
important to compare the changes which are associated with normal
aging to those that are actually associated with the condition
themselves.
It's only by looking at these changes that we will unearth the
cause of Parkinson's disease and lead to a cure.
It's very easy to register on the Brain Donor Register, simply
visit the Parkinson's Disease Society website or call the freephone
helpline on 0808 800 0303
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