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Researchers Unveil Novel Approach to Study Parkinson's Treatment
Lead researcher Karl Deisseroth attributes this advance to a technique to systematically characterize disease circuits in the brain.
The researcher says that the NSF-funded technology, termed optogenetics, enabled them to precisely control individual components of the circuit implicated in Parkinson's disease.
The novel technology uses light-activated proteins, originally isolated from bacteria, in combination with genetic approaches to control specific parts of the brain.
It is a vast improvement over previous methods because it allows researchers to precisely stimulate neurons, and measure the effect of treatment simultaneously in animals with Parkinson's-like symptoms.
Deisseroth's team found that they could reduce disease symptoms by preferentially activating neurons that link to the subthalamic nucleus region of the brain.
The researchers first treated these specific cells in a way that made them sensitive to stimulation by blue light, and then implanted an optical fibre in the brain.
When researchers rapidly flashed blue light inside the animals' brains the disease symptoms improved.
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