Neuroprotective and neurorestorative therapies for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Parkinson´s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer´s disease. Current therapies are symptomatic and, although these therapies are efficacious during the early stages of the disease, they present important side effects when they are used for a long time. The ideal therapy would be the one that would slow down or stop the progression of the disease. This can be achieved, for instance, with neuroprotective and neurorestorative therapies. Among them, cell therapy and therapy with trophic factors such as glial cell line derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) are the most challenging and promising ones for the scientific community. Although the use of GDNF as a treatment for Parkinson´s disease was proposed several years ago, it is necessary to develop alternative strategies to deliver GDNF appropriately to concrete areas of the brain. Here, the use of microspheres as the most suitable tool for the administration of this neurotrophic factor is discussed.