The study, funded by Parkinson’s UK, suggests that the drug, tasquinimod, which is not yet on the market, works by controlling genes that may cause Parkinson’s. This happens when the drug interacts with a protein inside brain cells.
The team at the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre used cutting-edge stem cell techniques to grow brain cells from skin cell samples donated by people with a rare genetic form of Parkinson’s, and from healthy people without the condition.