Future perfect? Presymptomatic diagnosis, neural transplantation, and trophic factors

Parkinson's disease has served as the prototype for study of degenerative neurologic diseases, perhaps because in patients with Parkinson's disease a set of conspicuous symptoms is due to loss of neurons in a single nucleus, the substantia nigra pars compacta. The restricted pathology enabled researchers to understand the salient biochemical abnormalities of and to develop effective drug therapies for Parkinson's disease. Our understanding of Parkinson's disease may enable identification of markers for presymptomatic diagnosis of the disease. Trophic factors and transplantation enabled researchers to begin to develop and implement strategies to protect remaining dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta and to restore dopaminergic innervation in the striatum.