New Research in Parkinson's Disease

Gene therapy—which uses the brain's own systems for cell growth to fight brain illnesses—is a promising area of brain research. The idea is to introduce properly functioning genes that can help make up for abilities lost through disease or injury.

Scientists hope that this approach may be used to treat many movement disorders (like PD) and other neurodegenerative diseases (like Alzheimer's), which are caused by the ongoing loss of nerve cells in certain areas of the brain.

Researchers have already had some success using gene therapy in animal testing (using models of PD) to help restore lost dopamine-producing cells. In animals, the therapy has helped keep nerve cells alive.

This type of treatment is now being investigated in people. But experts point out that gene therapy is still far from perfect. Much more research is necessary make it safer and more effective.

However, many scientists believe these early PD experiments will open the door to a wider use of gene therapy. For example, it could possibly be used in treating ALS—also known as Lou Gehrig's disease—and Huntington's disease.