The race is on, and no one knows
who will win or when.
On one side is the Parkinson’s
with prions poisoning the brain,
depleting dopamine,
causing slowness, rigidity, and pain.
On the other side are research pipelines
packed with potions to halt and undo damage
restoring health to neurons that once were dead or dying,
unclumping alpha synucleon – the culprit of destruction.
The disease moves on at tortoise-pace, without a single pause,
through inflammation, oxidation, fragmentation.
misfolding, clumping, dumping alpha-synuclein,
creating Lewy bodies– the culprit of dementia.
While research races at hare-like speed but
stops again and again for FDA to give the stop or go,
for old drugs, new drugs, repurposed drugs,
reformulated drugs, or drugs designed from dust.
Who will win this war and when –the prions or the potions?
the ravages from disease or cures from new discoveries?
I pray each day for drugs to win but time is running out
as prions pour their poisons into precious brain.
Great exploration of the frustrations of Parkinson's and the research required to find a cure.
Sad but true. I'm not sure which one is the tortoise and which the hare