Prospects for new restorative and neuroprotective treatments in Parkinson's disease

The degeneration of forebrain dopamine systems in Parkinson's disease has b een an effective target for pharmaceutical research over the past four deca des. However, although dopamine replacement may alleviate the symptoms of t he disease, it does not half the underlying neuronal degeneration. The past decade has seen major advances in identifying discrete genetic and molecul ar causes of parkinsonism and mapping the events involved in nigral cell de ath. This new understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease now offers n ovel prospects for therapy based on targeted neuroprotection of vulnerable neurons and effective strategies for their replacement.