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Yale-led team of scientists works toward cure for Parkinson's disease.A Yale-led team of scientists has joined a worldwide effort to find a cure for Parkinson’s, a debilitating neurological disease that affects more than 20,000 people in Connecticut.“I think there's lots of reason to hope,” said Dr.Stephen Strittmatter, head of the team and a professor of neuroscience and of neurology at Yale Medical School.“From the sort of medical or scientific point of view, it's a super exciting time.” Advertisement Article continues below this ad Strittmatter and Yale Medical School professors Dr.Eric Hoyeon Song and Le Zhang are working with colleagues at Vanderbilt and Columbia universities to focus on how Parkinson’s works at a molecular level.The Yale-led team is one of dozens worldwide taking part in a $261 million research push as part of the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s program in partnership with the Michael J.Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.“Solving a disease as complex as Parkinson’s requires big bets on bold biological hypotheses,” Sonya Dumanis, head of Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s, said in an April 28 statement announcing the new research initiative.The Strittmatter team secured a three-year grant to ramp up its research on how Parkinson’s works in the brain and strategies to stop its progression.Yale-led labs scrutinize disease on cellular level Scientists have identified many of the genetic factors that play a role in Parkinson’s over the last few decades, and are now focusing on working out how the disease impacts brain cells to produce symptoms like tremors, difficulty speaking and loss of balance, Strittmatter said.Advertisement Article continues below this ad Want more New Haven Register?The next step is to develop drugs that can stop or even reverse the damage.“We're really at the stage where this accumulating molecular and cellular analysis is getting to the point we can think about intervening and making drugs,” Strittmatter said.In their labs at Yale, Strittmatter, Song and Zhang are working on research around how a misfolded protein called synuclein accumulates in brain cells and causes damage that leads to Parkinson’s.Synuclein buildup also causes Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder caused by large clumps of the misfolded protein in brain tissue.Advertisement Article continues below this ad Strittmatter is working with Zhang on two specific receptors on the surface of brain cells that serve as gateways for the toxic protein and could be targets for future drugs.Song's lab is looking at how synuclein can be flushed out of the brain, and how that organ's lymphatic drainage system can be mobilized to protect against Parkinson's.“If we prevent the uptake of the bad stuff, our hope is that we'll slow and prevent the disease,” Strittmatter said.“We're very interested in this balance between good clearance out of the brain and bad uptake into the neurons.” Although current drugs can help alleviate some Parkinson’s symptoms, the disease continues to progress as synuclein accumulates, Strittmatter said.By stopping uptake of the toxic protein into brain cells, the progressions of the disease could be stopped in its tracks.“A potential outcome at the end of it would be that we know we have a good drug target, we have a compound that works, and then a real clinical development program could start at that point,” Strittmatter said.Drugs developed as part of the new effort could reach patients in as soon as three years or so, he added.Advertisement Article continues below this ad “This has the potential to create real disease-modifying drugs that will stop or slow the progression of Parkinson's disease,” Strittmatter said.Research also shows promise for Alzheimer's Breakthroughs as part of the new research effort could help patients with Lewy body dementia as well as people with Alzheimer's, as about 30-40% of those patients also have abnormal buildup of synuclein."There's overlap with at least a third of Alzheimer's cases," Strittmatter said.Advertisement Article continues below this ad Linking researchers across universities and across the world to spark new discoveries on Parkinson’s is the goal of the new effort, said Todd Sherer, chief mission officer at the Michael J.Fox Foundation.“This level of coordinated, global investment brings together leading scientists to tackle the most critical questions about the disease; not in isolation, but as a connected community working to accelerate discovery and move new ideas into the treatment pipeline,” Sherer said.“For people living with Parkinson’s, the need for better treatments has never been more urgent.” At a Parkinson's Disease Awareness Day event in Hartford on April 22, state Rep.Frank Smith, Democrat of Milford, spoke of his own diagnosis with the disease three years ago and his hopes for a cure."Every breakthrough brings us closer to improving the quality of life for current patients," Smith said in a post on the House Democrats' website.Advertisement Article continues below this ad