The possibility of a new treatment for Parkinson's
disease has emerged, according to U.S. researchers claiming a key finding.
They said they recently discovered a glitch in cell
function that can lead to the disease. In healthy cells, damaged proteins are
digested and recycled in a process called autophagy. Researchers "have
found in Parkinson's there are problems in removing abnormal proteins,"
according to Ana Maria Cuervo, cell biologist at the Albert Einstein College of
Medicine of Yeshiva University,
Cuervo and her team are hopeful that new drugs to aid in
the process of cleaning up abnormal proteins in cells will be available in five
years time, though they say these drugs will not be a cure for the disease.