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Nature 447, 1059-1060 (28 June 2007) | doi:10.1038/4471059a; Published online 27 June 2007

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Neurophysiology: Stressful pacemaking

Bruce P. Bean1

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In Parkinson's disease, dopamine-secreting neurons die — perhaps because unrelenting calcium entry during spontaneous electrical activity puts them under unusual pressure.

At a conference on calcium-channel-blocking drugs in the 1980s, a neurologist friend told me of colleagues who kept pills of the calcium-channel blocker nimodipine handy, planning to ingest one immediately should they suffer a stroke. Showing even more faith in the drug, an executive from the pharmaceutical company sponsoring the conference said that he took an unprescribed nimodipine pill every morning with his cereal, on the assumption that it was better not to wait.

  1. Bruce P. Bean is in the Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, 220 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
    Email: bruce_bean@hms.harvard.edu

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