So this research tells that dopamine cells die partly due to failure in microtubule:
" But why do these microtubule-disrupting drugs only kill dopaminergic neurons and not other types of nerve cells? "Microtubule disassembly impairs dopamine release, so dopamine accumulates in the cell," explains Xia. Excess cytoplasmic dopamine may then be oxidized, producing reactive oxygen species (ROS) that induce cell death. Taxol prevented rotenone from increasing dopamine and ROS levels, and drugs that inhibit either dopamine synthesis or ROS protected neurons from rotenone-induced death."
If this is true, one can only conclude that dopamine boosting treatment (i.e. l-dopa medication) will only speed up cell death through increasing dopamine in the cytoplasm in allready sick cells with faulty microtubule.
Let us hope that new drugs will be found targetting the real causes of the disease instead of 50 years drugs which only give short time relief followed by many years of side effects that may be worse than the natural untreated illness.
That is of course my humble "unscientific" opinion.
cheers
Imad