http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukp...jEnTTvyAjWEIkg
Discovery may 'protect brain cells'
(UKPA) – 19 hours ago

A drug given to transplant patients can protect brain cells from rogue genes that cause Parkinson's disease, say scientists.

Rapamycin is an immune suppresser used to prevent transplant organs being rejected by the body's defence system...found that it blocks the damaging effects of two of the mutant genes known to cause inherited forms of Parkinson's...

Because it weakens the immune system, the drug is unlikely to be used to treat patients directly. But investigating how rapamycin prevents the cell death associated with Parkinson's could lead to new treatments.


"...Another exciting outcome of our study is that the positive effects were seen in both flies and human cells. This shows that even simple animal models do work in some cases, and that human cells grown in the lab may be a good method of screening for new anti-Parkinson's drugs in the future..."

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