Sensitive nerve cells

In Germany alone, more than 300,000 people are afflicted by Parkinson's disease and the number is growing steadily. However, despite comprehensive research, scientists are still somewhat in the dark as to the molecular changes that trigger this illness. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried, Germany, together with colleagues from Munich and Hamburg, have demonstrated using a new animal model that nerve cells do not begin to die to the extent found in "Parkinson's" in mice until three conditions come together. These findings, which are published next week in the online, open access journal PLoS Biology, are an important step forward in understanding this illness.

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