Years after pinpointing a faulty protein in the brains of patients diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, researchers have made another breakthrough.

The team at the University of Sydney was able to target this SOD1 protein with a drug treatment in mice. They observed a “dramatic” improvement in their motor skills.

Now comes the tricky task of figuring out how to target the SOD1 protein safely in humans, paving the way for a potential treatment to slow progression.

Guest/s

• Professor Kay Double, Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney

References

• Copper supplementation mitigates Parkinson-like wild-type SOD1 pathology and nigrostriatal degeneration in a novel mouse model