Single Protein May Hold Secret to Treating Parkinson’s Disease and More

By Dana G. Smith, PhD / Gladstone News / December 26, 2016.

“Nrf2 coordinates a whole program of gene expression, but we didn’t know how important it was for regulating protein levels until now,” explained first author Gaia Skibinski, PhD, a staff research scientist at Gladstone. “Overexpressing Nrf2 in cellular models of Parkinson’s disease resulted in a huge effect. In fact, it protects cells against the disease better than anything else we’ve found.”

The scientists say that Nrf2 itself may be difficult to target with a drug because it is involved in so many cellular processes, so they are now focusing on some of its downstream effects. They hope to identify other players in the protein regulation pathway that interact with Nrf2 to improve cell health and that may be easier to drug.

 Single Protein May Hold Secret to Treating Parkinson’s Disease and More