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Second chance

Nature Medicine volume 13, pages 770–771 (2007)Cite this article

A California company is reviving a once abandoned treatment for Parkinson's disease. Erika Check assesses its odds of success.

California-based Amgen was delivering a protein directly into the brains of 34 people with the disease. The protein, glial cell line–derived neurotrophic factor, or GDNF, had for years been a promising candidate to treat Parkinson's and other brain disorders. But attempts to use it and other such proteins had met with crushing disappointment.

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  1. Erika Check covers biomedical research for Nature from San Francisco.,

    Erika Check

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  1. Erika Check
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Parkinson's trial halted

Direct brain infusion of glial cell line derived neurotrophic factor in Parkinson disease

Profile: Clive Svendsen

The future of gene therapy

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Ceregene's approach

GDNF 4 Parkinson's advocacy group

Parkinson's Disease Foundation on GDNF research

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Check, E. Second chance. Nat Med 13, 770–771 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0707-770

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