Answer for NUR 550 Select a population health problem or issue of interest from the available studies Re: Topic 1 DQ 2

When looking through the GCU library for an interesting study containing translational research, I found this study called “Enhanced differentiation of human dopaminergic neural cell model for preclinical translational research in Parkinson’s disease.” (Harischandra et. Al, 2020). This study states that there are treatment options out there for those patients with Parkinsons, like deep brain stimulation and medications like levodopa, but these treatments are only touching the surface of the issue at hand (Harischandra et. Al, 2020). They state that for future (better) treatment for these patients they need to look at the dopaminergic neurons as well as the dopamine transporter (Harischandra, et. Al, 2020). They attempted to preform studies on rats but found that the cells differed in a way that would not give them accurate results (Harishchandra, et. Al, 2020). They then went on to utilize embryonic stem cells and developing these into LUHMES cells which more closely resembled the pathways they were trying to achieve (Harischandra, et. Al, 2020). By doing their experiments on these cells they are in the T1 transition, pre patient and practice, in the lab studying the real effects on the neural pathways (Translational Research, n.d.). I’m not going to lie the study is lengthy and the process they utilized involved a ton of chemicals and days of watching these cells develop into what they needed, but at the end of 5 days their processes had drastically increased the reuptake of dopamine in the cells (Hasichandra, et. Al, 2020). Stem Cells are not always available for drug research so being able to develop these LUHMES cells to test on is great for the future of Parkinsons research and for testing drugs (Harischandra et. Al, 2020).

Harischandra, D. S., Rokad, D., Ghaisas, S., Verma, S., Robertson, A., Jin, H., Anantharam, V., Kanthasamy, A., & Kanthasamy, A. G. (2020). Enhanced differentiation of human dopaminergic neuronal cell model for preclinical translational research in Parkinson’s disease. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. Molecular Basis of Disease, 1866(4), 165533. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.bbadis.2019.165533

Translational Research – Defining the “T’s” | Translational Cancer Research Network. (n.d.). Www.Tcrn.Unsw.Edu. Retrieved June 18, 2021, from http://www.tcrn.unsw.edu.au/translational-research-definitions