Sci­en­tists hold out hope for re­gen­er­a­tive in­fu­sion via brain im­plant — de­spite fail­ing its first test in Parkin­son's

A re­gen­er­a­tive ap­proach to treat­ing Parkin­son’s dis­ease — fea­tur­ing an im­plant to pump a pro­tein di­rect­ly in­to pa­tients’ brains — floun­dered on its first clin­i­cal test, but that hasn’t stopped re­searchers in the UK from hold­ing out hope that it can even­tu­al­ly work by restor­ing dam­aged brain cells.

Cham­pi­oned by Parkin­son’s UK, the treat­ment works by boost­ing the lev­els of GDNF, or glial cell line de­rived neu­rotroph­ic fac­tor, a nat­u­ral­ly oc­cur­ring pro­tein thought to pro­tect cells and help them re­cov­er or re­grow. To re­ceive the pro­tein — which is too large to pen­e­trate the blood-brain bar­ri­er — pa­tients first have to un­der­go a ro­bot-as­sist­ed surgery to have four tubes placed in­to their brains, then get hooked to a ma­chine that in­fuse GDNF to pre­cise lo­ca­tions of the brain via a port on the side of the head.

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