Interesting, but does not explain the many manifestations of Parkinsonian symptoms; there are many cases where there is no loss of dopamine but very real loss of movement. For example, I have come across case studies on PubMed where people present with signs of PD and seem to decline pretty rapidly and upon CAT scan are found to have a blod clot deep in the brain and responsive to levodopa. When the clot is treated early enough all PD signs vanish. The medical term is subdural hematoma.

I am so jaded at this point that whenever I see the words "cause" or "development" and especially "leading to new treatment targets" I want to run screaming. I file iti in my head as cause #231 of PD. How in the world will this treatment happen without them even being able to measure that we have a loss of dopamine in the first place. They assume we all have the same thing going on in our brains when they don't really have a clue. See Harley's post on the DatScan.

Olsen, don't take this personally, any post that informs or provokes discussion is good, but I see this as an example of the problem with the absence of goal directed research...it might be relevant in the future but until they can actually figure out basic things like measuring our dopamine levels as a baseline and measure neuronal loss at regular intervals (say once a year) thereafter, then I don't see how intervening at this invasive a level would be safe let alone beneficial. I'd rather see research directed at how to develop what we need to diagnose more accurately.

Laura