I take a break from the world of PD only to stumble upon this little gem of an article...note the use of the word "breakthrough"? I glanced at the article and my first instinct was well, here we go again yet another path that takes us nowhere. I was wrong. There is a definite buzz about this one!

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/214217.php

http://www.pdonlineresearch.org/news...al-role-progre

I think it was Madelyn who was cautioning in general about therapies targeting alpha-synuclein because we do not fully understand its role. I for sure am convinced it is the bad guy. The breakthrough is the discovery that alpha-synuclein, not only aggregates and folds...it travels!

Wow. So we have a normally benign protein gone bad. This folded, sick protein actually slips and slides into our newly generated neurons, killing them as well and ensuring that we never catch up. So very many questions come to mind. Oh, the really weird part is that apparently the proteins travel in a prion like way to infect hosts. I will look up prions, but what this means we have more in common with Mad Cow Disease than anything else!

I think this further supports U Nebraska and Affirris vaccine treatment; they aim to redirect our immune cells to the sick protein. This is exciting news because it provides more of a rationale or mandate to kill off something our body normally produces. It also shows that as more is learned about this rogue protein, researchers may eventually be able to stop the pathology earlier like before folding occurs .

This is promising news and yes, a breakthrough, I'd say. Funny how it slipped by most of us.

Laura