Newly identified compound can thwart protein implicated in Parkinson’s disease

Newly identified compound can thwart protein implicated in Parkinson’s disease.

Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, has an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease because he harbors a mutation in a protein called Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2, or LRRK2. The protein is viewed as a promising drug target to treat Parkinson’s, a progressive neurological disorder, but it is not possible to track LRRK2 activity in the brain, making the search for targeted therapies against the disease challenging.

In a new study, researchers now provide evidence for a way to measure LRRK2 activity—and a new compound that can block the damaging effects of the protein in rodent neurons.