Current pharmacological and surgical treatments for Parkinson�s disease offer symptomatic improvements to those suffering from\r\nthis incurable degenerative neurological disorder, but none of these has convincingly shown effects on disease progression. Novel\r\napproaches based on gene therapy have several potential advantages over conventional treatment modalities. These could be used\r\nto provide more consistent dopamine supplementation, potentially providing superior symptomatic relief with fewer side effects.\r\nMore radically, gene therapy could be used to correct the imbalances in basal ganglia circuitry associated with the symptoms of\r\nParkinson�s disease, or to preserve or restore dopaminergic neurons lost during the disease process itself. The latter neuroprotective\r\napproach is the most exciting, as it could theoretically be disease modifying rather than simply symptom alleviating. Gene therapy\r\nagents using these approaches are currently making the transition from the laboratory to the bedside. This paper summarises the\r\ntheoretical approaches to gene therapy for Parkinson�s disease and the findings of clinical trials in this rapidly changing field.
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