Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences

A collaborative study led by the Oxford Parkinson's Disease Center's Dr. Nora Bengoa-Vergniory has shown that compounds known as molecular tweezers could become a promising disease modifying therapy for Parkinson's.

A team of researchers has shown that tiny compounds known as molecular "tweezers" could become a promising therapy to slow Parkinson's. This new kind of drug works by pulling apart toxic clumps of protein that form in the brain during Parkinson's.

The therapy has previously shown high potential for targeting toxic protein clumps that form in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's. The research teams therefore investigated whether a particular molecular tweezer, CLR01, was able to reduce formation of protein clumps in cell and mouse models of Parkinson's.

The research was led by the Oxford Parkinson's Disease Center at the University of Oxford, created through funding from Parkinson's UK, and supported by the Medical Research Council with collaborators from the University of Bordeaux, the Universidad del País Vasco and the University of California.

The study showed that CLR01 is able to decrease clusters of the Parkinson's protein alpha-synuclein forming and prevent the death of human neurons that were made from stem cells.

TASS