PEOPLE suffering from Parkinson’s disease have more missing brain cells than anyone suspected. This could change the way the disease is studied and treated, says the Australian team who discovered the deficit.
The missing cells are pyramidal cells, intermediaries that help direct muscles to perform intricate tasks such as writing and doing up buttons. In healthy people these cells get switched on by dopamine released in the back of the brain. But in people with Parkinson’s, this dopamine supply dries up. In an effort to get the pyramidal cells working again, researchers have focused on developing drugs to boost production…
