Gene Therapy For Parkinson’s

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Good news from Medical News Today: "CERE-120, a gene therapy product in development for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, was was well tolerated and appeared to reduce symptoms by approximately 40% [as] measured by the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) motor "off" score ... CERE-120 is comprised of an adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector carrying the gene for neurturin (NTN), a naturally occurring protein, whose role is to keep dopamine-secreting neurons alive and functioning normally." Promising gene therapy trials are now producing results much like those of promising drug trials: the path of every new, superior technology includes a period of time in which it comes up to par with the best of older technologies. Old-style drugs can't get much better - but gene therapy has hardly even started.

Link: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=53791