Biomedical scientists generate new lead in Parkinson's treatment
Monday 24th August 2009
Biomedical scientists at a UK research centre have made progress in their bid to generate new treatments for Parkinson's disease.
Staff at the University of Sheffield's Department of Biomedical Science recently identified a pathway inside nerve cells which they claim could be stimulated to protect the dying cells affected by the disease.
Published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the study involved testing the effects of the drug Rapamycin, which was found to protect cells from the damaging impact of two of the mutant genes that cause inherited forms of Parkinson's.
Researcher leader Dr Alex Whitworth said: "Although Rapamycin is not a 'wonder drug' for treating Parkinson's, our study does shows that the animal and human models that we used can be useful tool in the discovery of new drugs for directly treating the condition."
Affecting around 120,000 people in the UK, Parkinson's is a neurological condition which was named after Dr James Parkinson, the man who identified it in 1817.
Written by Angela Newbury
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