286
It is called alpha-synuclein and is a harmless protein in itself, but when it aggregates in abnormal forms it becomes toxic: first it interferes with the communication between the brain neurons of people with Parkinson’s and then, over time, destroys them once for all.
But alpha-synuclein from being an enemy could turn into hope, that is, the target of new treatments against that degenerative disease – Parkinson’s – from which 5 million people in the world suffer, 400 thousand in Italy: men and women who today can count on drugs which act on the symptoms but not on the mechanisms underlying the pathology, which in fact we are currently unable to stop.
.