Reply To: Disease-Modifying Treatments for Parkinson’s; Are We There yet? | Dr Michael Li

[Sarah Askew]

Thanks Vivienne for the question. On behalf of Michael, here is his response to your question.

While we have understood for some time that dopamine neurons are affected in Parkinson’s and levodopa-based medications can help, it takes far more effort to understand why those dopamine neurons are lost. Other challenges in developing new treatments include the fact that people with Parkinson’s vary considerably in their neuronal biology (so it is hard to find a ‘one-size-fits-all’), and that Parkinson’s is likely driven by malfunction of many (rather than a single) cellular processes within dopamine neurons. Also, it has been historically difficult to study Parkinson’s as our cellular and animal models have limitations, however this technology is evolving and constantly improving.