{"id":242538,"date":"2026-08-11T05:36:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T10:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/molecular-structures-provide-roadmap-for-targeted-parkinsons-disease-therapeutics"},"modified":"2026-08-11T05:36:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T10:36:53","slug":"molecular-structures-provide-roadmap-for-targeted-parkinsons-disease-therapeutics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/molecular-structures-provide-roadmap-for-targeted-parkinsons-disease-therapeutics","title":{"rendered":"Molecular structures provide roadmap for targeted Parkinson\u2019s disease therapeutics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/u2wtg_dAe60?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have uncovered how a key Parkinson\u2019s protein called LRRK2 shifts between inactive and active forms, revealing the structural changes that enable certain mutations to push the protein into an overactive state. Mutations that cause LRRK2 to become abnormally active are among the most common genetic causes of Parkinson\u2019s disease. Even without these mutations, some people with Parkinson\u2019s disease have elevated LRRK2 activity.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding exactly how LRRK2 becomes overactive has become increasingly important because it is one of the leading targets for developing treatments that could slow Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n<p>Using electron microscopy and biochemistry, the team captured the structure of LRRK2 in different states, enabling them to elucidate how the protein toggles between active and inactive forms. The findings, <a href=\"https:\/\/linkinghub.elsevier.com\/retrieve\/pii\/S0092867426008251\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Cell<\/i>, point toward a new generation of targeted therapies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have uncovered how a key Parkinson\u2019s protein called LRRK2 shifts between inactive and active forms, revealing the structural changes that enable certain mutations to push the protein into an overactive state. Mutations that cause LRRK2 to become abnormally active are among the most common genetic causes of Parkinson\u2019s disease. Even [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry","category-genetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}