CELEBRITIES
Michael J. Fox’s foundation finds groundbreaking discovery about Parkinson’s
The 61-year-old actor says he has had a tough year but is now feeling encouraged by the “huge” development.
Michael J. Fox, who was diagnosed at the age of 29 with Parkinson’s disease, has quietly devoted his life to research for a cure.
Fox, an Oscar award-winning actor, retired from acting following the diagnosis to focus on his health, his family, and the foundation he would go on to found, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
The 61-year-old confessed in an interview with Stat News that he has had a “terrible year” but is starting to “feel better” as of late — largely due to feeling so encouraged by a recent “game changer” of a discovery about early on-set Parkinson’s’ disease.
Michael J. Fox’s new Parkinson’s discovery
The new discovery could mean earlier diagnosis of the disease, and eventually, treatments. Scientists have found, through research funded and led by the Michael J. Fox foundation, new evidence that “the presence of a particular misfolded protein, alpha-synuclein, can be used to determine if people have Parkinson’s.”
“This is the thing,” Fox said. “This is the big reward. This is the big trophy.”
“This is the newest chapter, which is, we got something done, something that is fundamentally going to change the world,” Fox continued. “I don’t say that lightly. I don’t say it with any credit. It’s the way it worked out. It could open the floodgates.”
Facing your fears
Recalling a childhood memory of playing hockey with other boys bigger than him, Fox illustrated the challenge before him.
“The guy next to me has a full-on mustache and I’m this little slug,” Fox described. “But I’m a tough son of a b***h. I’ve always been a tough son of a b***h. You can beat me up, but I’ll get one punch in and it will hurt.”
“And I think I got one punch in on Parkinson’s.”
It won’t all be changed at once – but it’s a huge step
Fox noted that medical advancements don’t happen overnight, and that the changes will take time to make a difference.
“It’s all changed. It can be known and treated early on. It’s huge,” Fox said. “At a personal level I’d love to see this happen before I get on the bus and head to the next parking lot.”
“I just feel like I’m in a unique position,” he explained. “I steered the ship but I have no idea about the workings on the deck.”
What is the study?
The study, called the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative, first started to develop in 2008 and began in 2010.
Since then, results have increased to the new synuclein test detecting the disease 87% of the time, and it detected the absence of the disease 96% of the time. The results of the 1123-person study, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars, have been published in ‘The Lancet Neurology’.
Ken Marek, the president of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders in New Haven, Connecticut, and principal investigator of the PPMI study, said that this new discovery will make an incredible difference in the field.
“This changes things in many ways in a positive direction,” Marek said. “It enables us to be more clear for individuals who might have or who have what we now think of as Parkinson’s disease.”