This thread is too technical for me to weigh in but I wanted to mention that back in January 2003 MJFF launched a program (~$2 million) to fund efforts to better understand the role of inflammation in PD. I remember extensive discussions at the time that we really didn't even know if inflammation was cause or effect...I remember thinking in 2005 (or 2006?) at the SFN conference that so many posters were being presented on the topic--basically from our program--and it really got people talking since almost no work had ever been done in that field for PD. You can go to the michaeljfox.org and search on inflamation to see more about the grants we funded (you can choose to search our whole site or merely our grants database). This was one of the more basic science programs we funded (along with protein degradation) to open up new areas of inquiry...I believe these early grants provided data and insights that lead to more funding at NIH on the topic.

Debi