Parkinson’s dopamine killers identified

Researchers have found an essential key that could lead to new treatments and possibly a cure for Parkinson’s disease. They have identified the protein that kills dopamine-producing cells in the brain—and a way to disable it.
source

I found this to be pretty interesting, and decided to post a thread. This is wonderful news for people suffering the ravages of Parkinson's Disease. I sincerely hope this research pans out and a cure is found.

Parkinson’s disease sufferers lack a sufficient amount of dopamine. Anumantha Kanthasamy, a distinguished professor of biomedical sciences and W. Eugene and Linda R. Lloyd Endowed Chair in Neurotoxicology at Iowa State University, discovered that a novel protein—known as protein kinase-C—destroys dopamine-producing cells.

Kanthasamy and his research staff discovered a compound that neutralizes the cell-killing kinase-C and allows the dopamine-producing cells to survive and function.
(from the above linked article)

TA

Starred and Flagged!
Let's hope that this discovery does lead to a safe drug that does arrest or even cure Parkinson's.
Great find.

The study is still ongoing, so no peer reviewed article has been published.

It is supported by a National Institutes of Health grant, so it is unlikely to get stopped halfway through by Big Pharma.

May be good to check for updates in the future.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus

Let's hope that this discovery does lead to a safe drug that does arrest or even cure Parkinson's.

Agreed, 100%.


reply to post by jjjtir

May be good to check for updates in the future.

Yes, this is one to keep an eye on. Hopefully, we will see some good come from the research in the near future.

Thanks for the replies, and additional information.


TA

reply to post by TheAssociate


Ooops, I just realized there was a duplicate thread posted here in this same section with 6 days difference.




[edit on 10-11-2009 by jjjtir]

[edit on 10-11-2009 by jjjtir]

good news for michael j fox.