New research offers the promise of treatments for the one million Americans affected by Parkinson’s disease, the second most common degenerative nerve disorder (after Alzheimer’s) in the U.S. A team at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago reports that isradipine (brand name DynaCirc), a drug currently prescribed to reduce high blood pressure, may block the death of neurons in patients with advanced cases of Parkinson’s and may also be able to prevent the development of the disease.
