Caffeine based compounds preventing the levels of Parkinson’s read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/1086-caffeine-based-compounds-preventing-the-levels-of-parkinson-s

A team of researchers from the University of Saskatchewan has developed two caffeine-based chemical compounds that show promise in preventing the levels of Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease attacks the nervous system, causing uncontrolled shakes, muscle stiffness, and slow, imprecise movement, chiefly in middle-aged and elderly people.

The team focused on a protein called α-synuclein (AS), which is involved in dopamine regulation. In Parkinson's sufferers, AS gets misfolded into a compact structure associated with the death of dopamine-producing neurons. In prion diseases, one mis-folded protein triggers mis-folding in others, spreading like falling dominos.

Jeremy Lee, a biochemist from the University of Saskatchewan said, many of the current therapeutic compounds focus on boosting the dopamine output of surviving cells, but this is effective only as long as there are still enough cells to do the job.

This new approach protects dopamine-producing cells by preventing α-synuclein from mis-folding in the first place.

The team synthesized 30 different bifunctional dimer drugs, that link two different substances known to have an effect on dopamine-producing cells. They started with a caffeine scaffold, that shows the stimulant has a protective effect against Parkinson's.

From this base, researchers added other compounds, such as Nicotine the diabetes drug metformin, and aminoindan, a chemical similar to the Parkinson's drug rasagiline, with known effects.

Using a yeast model of Parkinson's disease, the team discovered two of the compounds prevented the AS protein from clumping, effectively allowing the cells to grow normally. These novel bifunctional dimers show promise in preventing the progression of Parkinson's disease.