Rapamycin, an FDA-approved drug that extends lifespan in several species, prevented Parkinson's disease (PD) in middle-age mice that were genetically fated to develop the incurable neurodegenerative motor disease that affects as many as one million Americans. While the rapamycin did great things for the mice, scientists in the Andersen lab at the Buck Institute also got an unexpected plus from the research - a new understanding of the role parkin plays in cellular dynamics, one that challenges the current dogma in PD research and presents new opportunities for drug discovery. The study is currently online in the Journal of Neuroscience.
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