UCSC RESEARCH COULD HELP PARKINSON'S VS

RESEARCHERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ, HAVE SHOWN THAT RIFAMPICIN, AN ANTIBIOTIC USED TO TREAT LEPROSY AND TUBERCULOSIS, COULD HELP THOSE WITH PARKINSON'S DISEASE. THEY HAVE FOUND THE DRUG CAN PREVENT THE FORMATION OF PROTEIN FIBRILS ASSOCIATED WITH THE DEATH OF BRAIN CELLS IN PEOPLE WITH PARKINSON'S . THE DRUG ALSO DISSOLVED EXISTING FIBRILS IN LABORATORY TESTS. THE RESEARCHERS STUDIED THE EFFECTS OF RIFAMPICIN IN TEST TUBE EXPERIMENTS, AND ARE CURRENTLY DOING STUDIES WITH CELL CULTURES AND MICE, TO SEE IF THE SAME EFFECTS OCCUR IN LIVING CELLS.