Parkinson's disease in the limelight

The 2014 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award -one of three prestigious awards granted by the Lasker Foundation in recognition of scientists, clinicians and public servants who have made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure or prevention of human disease- has been granted to two pioneers in the field of Parkinson's disease therapy. In spite of the availability of more than two dozen drugs and fixed-dose combination products to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's disease -most notably the gold standard levodopa, a dopamine precursor- as well as nonpharmacological treatments like deep brain stimulation, many patients do not respond to available drugs or experience breakthrough symptoms, and the disease is ultimately uncurable. This article reviews currently available therapies as well as biomarkers and novel diagnostics.