VIEW OINTS Pledge Form Enclosed A quarterly newsletter for the Parkinson’s Community of British Columbia 3 4 7 8 SUMMER New Hope to Genetics, Stem Cell British Columbia 2017 Halt Compulsive Environment and Research and can do Better Gambling Parkinson’s disease Parkinson’s Parkinson Society British Columbia Executive Committee OUR MISSION Parkinson Society British Columbia exists Chair ANDREW DAVENPORT to address the personal and social consequences of Past Chair Parkinson’s disease through education, outreach, scientific COLIN MACBEATH Secretary research, advocacy and public awareness. BOB THOMPSON Treasurer 890 West Pender Street, Suite 600, Vancouver, BC V6C 1J9 CATHERINE HSU Tel 604 662 3240 · Toll Free 1 800 668 3330 · Fax 604 687 1327 Member at Large VAL SWANNELL [email protected] · www.parkinson.bc.ca Directors Charitable Registration Number 11880 1240 RR0001 SHERRI ZELAZNY · ARIANE GRILL CEC PRIMEAU · DAVE RICKARDS JAMES PATTERSON Your support is Support Groups MICHELLE BOURBONNAIS RICHARD MAYEDE essential! 100 Mile House, Abbotsford, Burnaby, ELISABETH SADOWSKI Campbell River, Chilliwack, Chinese Medical Advisor PSBC would not exist without the Speaking (Burnaby), Courtenay/Comox MARTIN MCKEOWN generosity of its mem bers, donors Valley, Cranbrook, Duncan/Cowichan Staff and volunteers since it receives no Valley, Elk Valley (formerly Sparwood), Chief Executive Officer government support. Fort St. John, Kamloops, Kelowna, JEAN BLAKE Kelowna Caregivers, Kootenay Lake East Information & Programs Manager The following are the many ways Shore, Ladner, Langley, Langley YOPD, (maternity leave) you can support your society: Lion’s Bay, Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows, STACEY DAWES Maple Ridge Caregivers, Mission, Education & Support Services Membership—$25 annual fee Nanaimo, Nelson, New Diagnosis 1 & 2 Coordinator (Vancouver), New Westminster, North Monthly or Quarterly Donation CAROLINE WIGGINS Shore Caregivers, Osoyoos/Oliver, Education and Support Services United Way Parksville/Qualicum, Parksville/Qualicum Coordinator & Counsellor Caregivers, Penticton, Port Alberni, Powell MYRIAME LÉPINE LYONS Remember PSBC when giving River, Prince George, Quadra Island, Registered Clinical through United Way Counsellor (part-time) Quesnel, Richmond, Richmond COURTNEY HANNA Special Events Carepartner, Shuswap/Salmon Arm, Marketing, Communications Your participation in our special South Sunshine Coast (Sechelt), Terrace, & Events Manager events makes a difference Trail/Castlegar, Tri Cities, Tri Cities ALICIA WROBEL Caregivers, Tsawwassen, Vancouver Resource Development Officer Planned Giving and Bequests Arbutus, Vancouver Caregivers, (part-time) Consider PSBC as a beneficiary Vancouver Downtown Working BETTY HUM in your Will Professionals, Vancouver West Side, Marketing & Community Vernon, White Rock, YOPD Online Engagement Specialist AMANDA MCCULLEY Editorial Statement Resource Development & Volunteer Coordinator The views and opinions expressed within the pages of Viewpoints are not necessarily those MIRELA DZAFEROVIC of Parkinson Society British Columbia. The intention is to provide the reader with a wide range of material. Parkinson Society British Columbia welcomes submissions for the newsletter. The Events Assistant (Seasonal) editor reserves the right to edit material and to withhold material from publication. VIEWPOINTS JENNIFER FLYNN Major Gifts & Individual Articles contained in Viewpoints are for information only. PSBC does not guarantee nor Giving Development Officer endorse any product or claim made by an author. In matters of medical treatment or therapy, RAV KAMBO patients should consult their physicians. Donor & Member Services Coordinator/Office Manager SUSAN ATKINSON 2 SUMMER 2017 research New Hope to Halt RESEARCH GRANT Compulsive Gambling For people with Parkinson’s disease, it’s usually a New hope to halt tremendous relief to find a drug to treat the tremors, compulsive gambling stiffness or the freezing that causes some of them to halt in place. RESEARCH PROFILE PILOT PROJECT GRANT But for a significant minority of people – Dr. Catharine Winstanley Parkinson Society up to 20 percent – the class of drugs that British Columbia is often most effective in controlling these INSTITUTE Pilot Project Grant of University of British $45,000 over one year* motor symptoms comes with a devastating Columbia side effect. These synthetic dopamine drugs, called dopamine agonists, can introduce risky worrying for the patients,” she says. People with behaviour, including compulsive gambling that Parkinson’s could take both the synthetic dopamine may cause people to drain their life-savings or agonists and the additional medication, relieving ruin their relationships. their motor symptoms without jeopardizing their supportive relationships and livelihood. At the University of British Columbia, behavioural neuroscientist, Catharine Winstanley, uses animal Currently, the impulse control issues are “the worst models to investigate the link between a protein outcome for someone who is trying to develop a new called GSK3beta and the impulse control problems medical treatment,” says Winstanley, an associate some people develop when taking these drugs. The professor at UBC. “The drug they’ve developed risky behaviours often make both doctors and people turns out to cause something worse than the with Parkinson’s reluctant to turn to dopamine disease they were trying to treat.” The heart-rending agonists for treatment. Although GSK3beta is effects of compulsive gambling and other impulsive associated with several psychiatric disorders, so far behaviours compelled Winstanley to tackle this researchers don’t know its precise role in causing research project, she says. She empathizes with them. What they do know is that certain other drugs, people with Parkinson’s, whose hopes are raised including lithium and new lithium derivatives, seem by the prospect of taking the dopamine agonist to block GSK3beta, preventing the development of medication, only to have those hopes dashed when impulse control problems. the risky behaviours emerge. Winstanley and her colleagues are testing these “You don’t have to look very far before you drugs, which have already been demonstrated to find a friend or a relative who is dealing with be safe. They’re hoping that giving one of these the fallout from Parkinson’s disease,” says drugs to people already taking dopamine agonists Winstanley. “I just want to do the little bit I can will prevent them from developing these impulsive to make that better. This is the area where I behaviours. If Winstanley is successful, “it would think my own research can make a difference.” make the experience of being treated with these compounds (dopamine agonists) a lot safer and less VIEWPOINTS * Awarded through Parkinson Canada’s National Research Program parkinson.bc.ca 3 ask an expert What are gene-environment Genetics, Environment interactions, and how have they been and Parkinson’s disease underexplored in Parkinson’s disease (PD) related research so far? with DR. BEATE RITZ Gene-environment interactions (GxE) are the Dr. Beate Ritz received her processes by which an individual person’s genetic MD and a PhD in Medical make-up interacts with agents in the environment. Sociology from the University These agents can include food and medications, of Hamburg Germany in 1983 mould, pesticides and air pollution, just to name a few. and 1987; she was a research Even the smallest differences in genetic factors can fellow and resident at the change how an individual reacts to the environment Psychiatric University-Hospital around them. Almost all diseases are the result of in Hamburg from 1987-1989, GxE interactions. and received doctoral training and a PhD degree in Gene-environment interactions can be challenging to Epidemiology in 1995 from the University of study since researchers need to both measure California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Upon graduation, environment exposures reliably as well as determine she joined the faculty of the School of Public the appropriate genes to examine. For example, one Health at UCLA and is currently Professor and of the studies I was involved with determined that an Vice-Chair of the Epidemiology Department. increase in PD risk is associated with variations in the Dr. Ritz is also a member of the Center for paraoxonase 1 – an enzyme also known as PON1 that Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH), breaks down pesticides that enter the human body – the Southern California Environmental Health and dopamine transporter genes. Science Center (SCEHSC) and co-directs the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences- Can you tell us a bit about your funded UCLA Center for Gene-Environment Studies research interests and how they of Parkinson’s disease. She was one of the plenary pertain to PD? speakers at Parkinson Society British Columbia’s My research focuses on the effects of both most recent provincial conference, Moving occupational and environmental toxins. Toxins such Forward, Together, on June 3, 2017. as pesticides and air pollution can impact neurodegenerative diseases and cancers. One of our major studies that garnered interest in Canada and the United States was a large-scale project in rural areas of Southern California. We used detailed information collected by a large group of patients with Parkinson’s in California’s Central Valley. I worked VIEWPOINTS with a team of researchers to evaluate both genetic and environmental risk factors and how they interact in PD. This study established