Modern therapeutic approaches in Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder of the brain and typically presents with a disorder of movement. The core pathological event underlying the condition is the loss of the dopaminergic nigrostriatal pathway with the formation of alpha-synuclein-positive Lewy bodies. As a result, drugs that target the degenerating dopaminergic network within the brain work well, at least in the early stages of the disease. Unfortunately, with time, these therapies fail and produce their own unique side-effect profile and this, coupled with the more-diffuse pathological and clinical findings in advancing disease, has led to the search for more-effective therapies. In this review, we discuss the emerging new therapies in PD in terms of neuroprotective agents, drugs designed to control symptoms more effectively, and finally curative cell therapies.