MovieChat Forums > Lorenzo's Oil (1993) Discussion > 14 Years Later and STILL No Cure For Mye...

14 Years Later and STILL No Cure For Myelin Diseases!

posted 19 years ago by MovieMarauder
15 replies | jump to latest

You would think that after all of this time, effort, and promise, the Myelin Project would have achieved at least some of its aims for myelin repair research. And yet we seem to be no further now than we were then! Is it the fault of the languid, overextended American medical research system, or simply due to a lack of funding and/or public interest? Is there nobody out there, besides a small, dedicated band of parents and researchers, who is actually doing anything with this research?

[–] neist 19 years ago

Or maybe it can't be cured.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] MovieMarauder 19 years ago

"So have your heroes in Europe or in Communist China found a cure of Myelin Project"

Being an American myself, most of my heroes are American. I'm not a big fan of Communist China.

"you America-hating troll?!!!"

Recognizing your country's shortcomings is hardly tantamount to treason. In fact, if nobody ever had the balls to admit that things could be better, we'd all still be subjugated under a tyrannical British monarchy. That wouldn't be very patriotic of us, would it?

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] red-205 18 years ago

Americans are too busy growing fat cells to study them

[–] queen-of-insanity 18 years ago

its funny coz my dad once told me he heard about a couple of parents with a kid who was going to die soon. So they went to the rainforest and actually found the cure....

[–] ectonight814 18 years ago

In my opinion as a research assistant at a hospital, the #1 reason why there hasn't been much research done in this area is lack of funding. To get a research study off the ground, the team must first secure grant money to finance the study. Government grants are typically the most available source, but with the war in Iraq, etc., almost all medical research is at a standstill right now. Private donations are the next place a researcher would look. The problem with finding a cure for ALS is that it's considerably rare, and it's difficult to get a private organization to fund research for something they've never heard of.
So basically, it's a matter of money.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] red-205 18 years ago

America hasn't dwendt

[–] just_another_angel_tear 18 years ago

there isn't a cure yet, but they've gotten to the point that the little boys are pretty well cured...they just have to take medicine their whole lives, which is a hell of a lot better than being a vegetable...

[–] red-205 18 years ago

I think dwendt is communist

[–] berryy 18 years ago

Using stem cells, myelin can probably be regenerated, but you know the problem with all the debate over it.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Doctor_Strangelove24 18 years ago

You would need some kind of gene therapy to cure ALD and as of yet gene therapies for other disorders such as SCID have been unmitigated disasters.

The genetic mutation for ALD is problematic because the protein shares sequence homology with dozens of other transporters of the ABC type. Which means if you come up with a drug that blocks that particular transporter, it will also block other transporters and kill the patient.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]