First, good luck Girija.

The article pointed to by Nan is certainly very interesting, but I can't believe that the laser technique described will lead to generally available therapies within the next 10 years.

I don't see how the technique scales up: even if you were able to detect and remove the clumps in one neuron, how would you be able to deal with all the surviving neurons in the substantia nigra of a PwP?

Pakkenberg et al. report [1]:
"Using an unbiased stereological technique, the total numbers of pigmented and non-pigmented neurons were estimated in the substantia nigra of seven patients with Parkinson's disease and seven control patients. Compared with the controls, in which the average total number of pigmented neurons was 550,000, the number of neurons was reduced by 66% in the patients."

It seems to me that a more immediate approach is to use therapies that reduce the rate of alpha-synuclein misfolding and aggregation (e.g. exercise leading to an increase in Hsp70 [2][3] and curcumin [4]) and try to avoid those chemicals that accelerate the rate of the process ( e.g. aluminium [5]).

Tag johnt:alpha-synuclein

References

[1] J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1991 January; 54(1): 30–33. PMCID: PMC1014294
"The absolute number of nerve cells in substantia nigra in normal subjects and in patients with Parkinson's disease estimated with an unbiased stereological method."
B Pakkenberg, A Møller, H J Gundersen, A Mouritzen Dam, and H Pakkenberg
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1014294/

[2] Acta Physiol (Oxf). 2006 Aug;187(4):495-501.
"Exercise is the primary factor associated with Hsp70 induction in muscle of treadmill running rats."
Noble EG, Ho R, Dzialoszynski T.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16866780

[3] J Biol Chem. 2004 Jun 11;279(24):25497-502. Epub 2004 Mar 25.
"Hsp70 Reduces alpha-Synuclein Aggregation and Toxicity."
Klucken J, Shin Y, Masliah E, Hyman BT, McLean PJ.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15044495

[4] J Biol Chem. 2012 Mar 16;287(12):9193-9. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M111.325548. Epub 2012 Jan 20.
"Curcumin prevents aggregation in α-synuclein by increasing reconfiguration rate."
Ahmad B, Lapidus LJ.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22267729

[5] November 23, 2001 The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 276, 44284-44296.
"Metal-triggered Structural Transformations, Aggregation, and Fibrillation of Human α-Synuclein
A POSSIBLE MOLECULAR LINK BETWEEN PARKINSON′S DISEASE AND HEAVY METAL EXPOSURE
Vladimir N. Uversky, Jie Li and Anthony L. Fink
http://www.jbc.org/content/276/47/44284.full

John