A Weill Cornell Medicine study has identified the enzyme PGK1 as crucial in maintaining energy production in brain cells, potentially offering new avenues for treating Parkinson’s disease. Researchers found that boosting PGK1 activity could counteract the energy deficits leading to the disease’s progression.
Published in Science Advances, the study demonstrated that even a slight increase in PGK1 activity helped prevent neuronal dysfunction in a Parkinson’s animal model. Senior author Timothy Ryan, Ph.D., emphasized the potential of developing more potent drugs targeting PGK1, building on the modest success of the prostate drug terazosin, which weakly enhances PGK1.
The findings suggest that targeting PGK1 could reverse early energy deficits in vulnerable dopamine neurons, possibly halting Parkinson’s disease in its tracks.
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