The future of Parkinson’s disease treatment

Advances in the understanding of the physiological processes affected by PD have led to a wealth of potential new opportunities to treat the disease.^2-4 Many of these, particularly immunotherapy, are still in the very early stages, but there are now clearer strategies and targets for which to aim.^1,3,4 It is now realized that many of the major neurodegenerative diseases associated with ageing – PD, Alzheimer’s disease, and others – are linked by similar underlying pathological processes, such as protein aggregation and prion-like propagation.⁵ This increased understanding has opened up new and exciting targets for tackling these diseases, and gives hope for a future where these treatments can help patients.

References:
1.Brundin P, Atkin G, Lamberts JT. Basic science breaks through: new therapeutic advances in Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord 2015; 30 (11): 1521–1527.

2.Kalia LV, Kalia SK, Lang AE. Disease-modifying strategies for Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord 2015; 30 (11): 1442–1450.

3.Senkevich K, Rudakou U, Gan-Or Z. New therapeutic approaches to Parkinson’s disease targeting GBA, LRRK2 and Parkin. Neuropharmacology 2022; 202: 108822.

4.Tolosa E, Vila M, Klein C, Rascol O. LRRK2 in Parkinson disease: challenges of clinical trials. Nat Rev Neurol 2020; 16 (2): 97–107.

5.Brundin P, Ma J, Kordower JH. How strong is the evidence that Parkinson’s disease is a prion disorder? Curr Opin Neurol 2016; 29 (4): 459–466.