This week, the discussion topic was the MAPK pathway and its connection to Parkinson’s(PD), Alzheimer’s (AD), and Lou Gehrig’s (LGD) diseases. One of the first things we discussed was whether we thought that there was a simple way to control or block the development of these diseases. Unfortunately, we could not think of a way simply because the MAPK pathway is literally everywhere. If we block any part of the pathway, it effects more than just the region we want it to, which is the biggest downfall in looking at such widespread pathways in the body with respect to disease.
Next we talked about insurance companies and being able to prescreen for risk factors for diseases. We all know that certain insurance companies can deny you on pre-existing conditions and we all thought that was ethically wrong but we all know it about money in this world and unfortunately that’s why insurance companies do that. What we thought was that if people had to pay to get things treated that aren’t life-threatening, then insurance companies would be more apt to accepting everyone and then everyone could have it for when they need it. One flaw that I saw from this was that some conditions aren’t life threatening in and of themselves but the fact that they lead people to have to miss work may end up threatening health, especially those people who need to work to provide for themselves and their families.
Next topic was the feasibility and morality of using stem cells to regenerate brain cells lost due to PD, AD and LGD. What we found out was that brain cells regenerate when stem cells are injected into the area where the loss occurred. However, because there are other factors that play into the development of the diseases, the stem cells are just a temporary cure and the neurodegeneration comes back and you would have to go through the process of re-injecting new stem cells into your brain. You also run the risk of the stem cells not differentiating correctly and turning into some other cell in the brain which is not a good thing at all. The morality issue has been around for a while in respect to stem cells because they come from fetuses. This brings into the picture of when does life officially start and due to the extreme sensitivity of some people to this topic, I will not go any further than saying that it was brought up in our discussions.
All in all, there are many potential ways out there now that we could use to go about preventing or curing neurodegenerative diseases, some with moral side effects and some with physical side effects that need to be taken into account. Who knows, maybe one day someone will stumble across the miracle drug that will cure all of these horrible, debilitating diseases.
MAPK pathway and the brain
