You are here

CNS: Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson’s disease is the second largest neurological illness in the elderly (after Alzheimer’s), affecting an estimated 1,500,000 Americans, with approximately 50,000 new cases diagnosed each year in this country.

The underlying cause of Parkinson’s disease is the progressive destruction of dopamine-producing brain cells. Dopamine acts as a messenger between the substantia nigra and the corpus striatum to produce smooth muscle movement. Without sufficient dopamine, communication between the brain areas becomes ineffective and muscle movement becomes impaired.

Current treatments are focused on controlling symptoms, mostly by increasing the levels of dopamine in the brain. These treatments lose their efficacy over time because they do not address the underlying disease progression.

Neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s have been extremely difficult to treat, given the historic difficulty in getting noninvasive therapies to the right place in the brain.