Dear Friend of the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease:

We want to alert you to an exciting discovery in Parkinson's disease
(PD) and Lewy Body dementia (LBD) by Dr. Aleksey Kazantsev, Dr. Tiago
Outeiro, Dr. Bradley Hyman, Dr. Anne Young, Dr. Pam McLean, Dr. Michele
Maxwell and other scientists at MIND and our collaborators-- which is being
published in the prestigious journal Science.  The paper describes the
discovery of an important drug target for Parkinson's disease - and possibly
other neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington's and Alzheimer's. 

This collaboration, led by Dr. Kazantsev, has found a novel set of compounds
that protect PD brain cells and that have vast potential to be made into
drugs for humans to treat Parkinson's.  This work also validates a
completely new way to save dopamine producing brain cells that will help PD
drug discovery efforts everywhere.  Since the mechanism is also relevant to
Huntington's and Alzheimer's, it has even broader promise.

We believe that MIND is one of the few places in the global scientific
community where this could happen, because our researchers work side-by-side
in laboratories with our in-house drug discovery experts.   In fact, this
breakthrough began with an interesting drug discovery in Huntington's
disease, which was then applied to Parkinson's with more robust results.

This is exactly the synergy we anticipated when MIND was created and we
thank you for placing your faith in us. We still have a long way to go and a
new set of challenges to bring this potential treatment forward but we are
thrilled with this step and wanted to share it with you.

We especially thank our donors who have stepped forward and invested in our
proactive approach to look for totally novel compounds for neurodegenerative
diseases.  This work is risky and cutting edge, but extremely rewarding when
a big discovery is made.  We absolutely rely on you to make this work
possible.

Regards,

Anne Young, MD PhD
Chief, Neurology Department
Founder, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease

Janice Hayes-Cha
Executive Director, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease
 

For More Information:

MassGeneral Hospital Press Release
Study Identifies Drug Target for Parkinson's - HealthDay News
Science - Science Express
The Washington Post
Gene therapy treatment offers Parkinson's relief - Reuters

Bigger is better; a new therapeutic approach for Parkinson's disease -Science Today (Portugal)
 

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