A team of researchers has demonstrated that immunotherapy with specifically targeted antibodies may block the development and spread of Parkinsons pathology in the brain.
Using powerful, newly developed cell culture and mouse models of sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD), researchers intercepted the distorted and misfolded alpha-synuclein (alpha-syn) proteins that enter and propagate in neurons, which creating aggregates. This resulted in preventing the development of pathology and also reversed some of the effects of already-existing disease. The alpha-syn clumps, called Lewy bodies, eventually kill affected neurons, which leads to clinical PD.
The work appeared on June 16th in Cell Reports.
Source: HealthCanal
Journal Article:http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/abstract/S2211-1247(14)00427-6