Protein Pump: Experimental therapy fights Parkinson’s

At first glance, people with Parkinson’s disease appear to have damaged muscles, as evidenced by tremors and rigidity. But in reality, their problem is a loss of brain cells needed to produce and regulate dopamine. Among its other duties, this compound enables the brain to send signals to muscles.

Scientists report in the May Nature Medicine that bathing the surviving dopamine-making neurons with a natural protein that induces nerve-fiber growth reverses some symptoms in Parkinson’s patients.