Since the Fox Foundation is sponsoring a Phase 2 Clinical Trial on Nilotinib, I thought a new thread would be of use.
Phase 2 Trial Testing Leukemia Treatment, Nilotinib, in Range of Parkinson's Patients - Parkinson's News Today

Here is an interview with a research professor on protein folding.

Tomorrow Edition - Interview With Protein Folding Expert Prof. Kelvin Luk

Do you think the aggregates that lead to neurodegeneration do so by resulting in the death of the cell or do they just lead to loss of function and if we can clear them will cells be able to function again? (function, in the case of PD, would mean to produce dopamine again)
That is still an unsolved question that many researchers are trying to answer. We do know that these aggregates, in particular Lewy bodies, are associated with something detrimental. Almost all of our experimental data tells us that these aggregates tend to be bad for the cell. However, there are researchers who believe that by forming aggregates of these proteins our cells might actually be preventing something that’s even worse, so protein aggregation could actually be a defense mechanism. It’s speculation at this point, but nonetheless is plausible. We also don’t know yet if patient’s symptoms would actually improve if we managed to remove these aggregates. I can’t think of any examples where this has been done successfully, so we haven’t really been able to test this hypothesis properly yet.