Enzyme offers hope to Parkinson's sufferers

[antiquity]

Posted: Thur, 22 Aug 2002 7:00 ACST

Enzyme offers hope to Parkinson's sufferers

South Australian researchers have discovered an enzyme in the brain that may hold the key to slowing the progress of the neurone degenerative disease, Parkinson's.

John Power, from the Flinders University School of Medicine, says the enzyme has been found in large quantities around damaged brain neurones in people suffering from Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

The findings will be published next month in the American Journal of Pathology.

Dr Power says the enzyme works to protect the neurones and in future may help to slow the degenerative effects of Parkinson's.

"Somewhere down the track we might be able to find a way to switch this enzyme on early in the piece and it might delay the clinical symptoms associated with these diseases, so it could slow the progression down," he said.

"So it has some significance from that point of view."

http://abc.net.au/news/australia/sa/...2aug2002-1.htm