BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Therapeutics: An undetermined target

March 3, 2016 8:00 AM UTC

Mouse studies suggest inhibiting thalamostriatal terminal activity could help treat Parkinson's disease (PD). Levels of thalamic input to indirect-pathway and direct-pathway medium spiny neurons (MSNs) were higher and lower, respectively, in a mouse model of PD than in normal mice. In the model, clozapine N-oxide - a clozapine metabolite that inhibits thalamostriatal synapses - decreased motor deficits compared with vehicle. Also in the model, brain expression of an engineered, optogenetic proton pump that inhibits thalamostriatal terminals decreased motor deficits compared with no expression of the proton pump. Next steps could include testing inhibitors of thalamostriatal terminals in other models of PD...