MPTP & Parkinson's disease

Wired is running a pretty interesting story about an unfortunate young drug dealer who wound up in possession of a bad batch of heroin which turned out to be MPTP, a toxic contaminant that wound up giving the young man all the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, "an incurable neurological illness that causes muscle rigidity, tremors and eventually loss of movement." It isn't particularly news anymore that MPTP can have this effect, but Wired's angle on the story follows this individual's case, as his was apparently the first documented case of MPTP causing these symptoms, which opened up a whole new model for studying the disease. Years later, this same unfortunate dealer became one of the first guinea pigs of an experimental treatment that would eventually become the standard for treating Parkinson's:

When Govea underwent the procedure in 2003, a small hole was drilled in his skull, and an electrical wire -- about the thickness of a strand of spaghetti -- was inserted into a small area called the subthalamic nucleus, part of the complex basal-ganglia system associated with steady muscle control. The wire was then connected to a battery pack, which generates a pulsing electrical current. Doctors implanted the battery in his abdomen in a separate operation (it's now typically placed under the collar bone).

"It is the predominant way people get surgical treatment for P.D. these days," said Dr. Chad Christine, a neurologist at UCSF, who is lead author of a forthcoming study on the technique.

The electrical stimulation alleviates the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, though no one knows exactly how. The most basic answer is that deep brain stimulation is setting up an interference pattern for abnormal electrical activity in the brain. "Like a jamming mechanism," Christine said.

This very treatment would not have been possible were it not for Govea's unfortunate encounter with MPTP:

Four years after his surgery, Govea's symptoms are still under control. "Look at my hand," he said, holding it perfectly still. He takes his own pills now, and he can read the newspaper without tearing it apart. Deep brain stimulation has "just changed my whole life," he said.

That's the irony of Govea's story. Advancements in the understanding of Parkinson's disease were made possible by the discovery of MPTP, which was made possible by Govea's fateful dosing with the drug. It also led to the development of deep brain stimulation. In essence, Govea has received a treatment developed from research done with the very chemical that gave him the disease being treated.

Isn't that always the way...