UK: Transplant drug gives new hope to Parkinson's sufferers
 

Transplant drug gives new hope to Parkinson's sufferers

By Daily Mail Reporter, Last updated at 9:42 AM on 17th August 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar....html#comments

Rapamycin is an immune suppresser used to prevent transplant organs being rejected by the body's defence system.
Scientists 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.


Rapamycin: It’s Not Just for Longevity in Mice

Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2009, 12:30 PM ET
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/07/...evity-in-mice/

There’s a bit off buzz around a drug called rapamycin this morning: A study published in Nature that found mice that took the rapamycin lived longer than mice that did not. Aside from noting that mice are not people, we’ll leave the descriptions of the rapamycin study to today’s papers — here are stories from the WSJ and New York Times.