A team of researchers led by Professor Giovanna Mallucci from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Toxicology Unit at the University of Leicester, who last year identified a major pathway leading to brain cell death in mice, have used an orally administered compound to block the pathway and have prevented neurodegeneration in the mice. The team…
neuroprotection
Parkinson’s and Protein Phosphorylation
Parkinson’s disease is characterized by the accumulation of a protein known as alpha-synuclein in the brain. If too much of it is produced or if it’s not eliminated properly, it then aggregates into small clumps inside the neurons, eventually killing them. Several years ago scientists discovered that these aggregated proteins in the brain had undergone…
Michael J. Fox Foundation awards grant for Exenatide research
Following encouraging results recently published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation describing the progress of a cohort of patients treated with Exenatide for their Parkinson’s disease (PD), The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research has awarded a grant of $1.98 million to Dr. T Foltynie to pursue this avenue of research. Exenatide is a…
Exenatide may be disease-modifying for PD
Exenatide is a type 2 diabetes treatment that has been shown to have neuroprotective/neurorestorative properties in preclinical models of neurodegeneration. A new study by Aviles-Olmos et al published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation reports on the results of a trial to evaluate the progress of 45 patients with moderate Parkinson’s disease (PD). Single-blinded rating…