New Hope For Mechanism Based Treatment Of Parkinson’s Disease

Researchers have discovered that rifampicin, an antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis and leprosy, inhibit the formation of alpha synuclein fibrils that have already formed. Because the aggregation of alpha synuclein in dopaminergic neuron is critical steps in pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Rifampicin or a related compound could provide a new approach to the treatment of PD. 1 Alpha-Synuclein And Parkinsons Disease PD is a common neurodegenerative disease disorder caused by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra.Current treatment is symptomatic- patients are usually given levodopa to improve motor symptoms.Recent discoveries indicate that PD pathogenesis involves the conversion of solouble alpha synuclein into abnormal filamentous alpha synuclein. Researcher reported that is mutated in a familial form of PD. The discovery of an alpha- synuclein mutation thus encouraged Goedert to examine Lewy bodies and neuritis, the defining neuropathological lesion of PD, for the presence of alpha –synuclein. Both types of lesion stained strongly for alpha- synuclein, and it is now clear that this protein is the major components of the filaments of these lesions.Two further missence mutation and triplication and duplication of the alpha synuclein gene, all of which cause the protein to aggregate, have since discovered in inherited forms of PD. Although it is not known why alpha synuclein aggregate in sporadic disease, notes alpha- synuclein is clearly a good target for mechanism based treatment of PD.