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The Pacific Northwest Udall Center or PANUC (rhymes with Nanook) was established in 2009 as a new Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson's Disease Research.〔http://pathology.washington.edu/PathNews/news?id=257〕 It is one of ten Udall Centers across the U.S. that honor former Utah Congressman Morris Udall with a "multidisciplinary research approach to elucidate the fundamental causes of PD (Disease ) as well as to improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients with Parkinson's and related neurodegenerative disorders." 〔http://www.ninds.nih.gov/research/parkinsonsweb/udall_centers/〕 PANUC is a multi-centered program based at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. Other sites include the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, and the Portland VA Medical Center. It is funded by a grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. == Mission == The mission of PANUC is to better understand the cognitive impairment observed in PD. While PD is typically known for its motor symptoms (tremor, slowness of movement), it is increasingly recognized that cognitive impairment, including dementia, is also a common feature of PD.〔Emre M, Aarsland D, Brown R, Burn DJ, Duyckaerts C, Mizuno Y, Broe GA, Cummings J, Dickson DW, Gauthier S, Goldman J, Goetz C, Korczyn A, Lees A, Levy R, Litvan I, McKeith I, Olanow W, Poewe W, Quinn N, Sampaio C, Tolosa E, Dubois B. Clinical diagnostic criteria for dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord 2007;22:1689–1707.〕 This “non-motor” aspect of PD is associated with reduced quality of life,〔Schrag A, Jahanshahi M, Quinn N. How does Parkinson’s disease affect quality of life? A comparison with quality of life in the general population. Mov Disord 2000;15:1112–1118.〕 more stress to caregivers than typical motor symptoms,〔Aarsland D, Larsen JP, Karlsen K, Lim NG, Tandberg E. Mental symptoms in Parkinson’s disease are important contributors to caregiver distress. Int J Geriatr Psych 1999;14:866–874.〕 and shortened lifespan.〔Nussbaum M, Treves TA, Inzelberg R, Rabey JM, Korczyn AD. Survival in Parkinson’s disease: the effect of dementia. Parkinsonism Rel Disord 1998;4:179–181.〕 While there are effective treatments for the motor symptoms of PD, unfortunately, there are few treatment options for cognitive impairment, in large part due to a limited understanding of its causes in patients with PD. PANUC will address this limitation through studies involving patient volunteers and through the development of models to better understand what brain changes lead to cognitive impairment in PD. Better understanding could lead to new treatments for this significant problem for patients with PD. In addition to generating new discoveries, PANUC will develop novel resources for other clinical, translational, and basic science researchers studying cognitive impairment in PD. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pacific Northwest Udall Center (PANUC)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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