Access
To read this article in full you may need to log in, make a payment or gain access through a site license (see right).
Review
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 5, 845–854 (1 October 2006) | doi:10.1038/nrd2087
Novel pharmacological targets for the treatment of Parkinson's disease
&
Abstract
Dopamine deficiency, caused by the degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons, is the cause of the major clinical motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease. These symptoms can be treated successfully with a range of drugs that include levodopa, inhibitors of the enzymatic breakdown of levodopa and dopamine agonists delivered by oral, subcutaneous, transcutaneous, intravenous or intra-duodenal routes. However, Parkinson's disease involves degeneration of non-dopaminergic neurons and the treatment of the resulting predominantly non-motor features remains a challenge. This review describes the important recent advances that underlie the development of novel dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic drugs for Parkinson's disease, and also for the motor complications that arise from the use of existing therapies.
To read this article in full you may need to log in, make a payment or gain access through a site license (see right).
