Neuroprotection in neurodegenerative processes associated with Parkinsonism and aging: Correlation between dopaminergic neuronal death and glial activation

The rapid aging of the world population will lead to an increase in cases of Parkinson's disease, challenging health systems in the coming decades. Some medications compensate for this lack of dopamine, but they are far from being perfect. Thus, it is necessary the research focus on the mechanisms involved in the cell death, as the neuroinflammatory processes, in order to develop new therapeutic strategies. One of the most promising ideas is the so-called “drug repositioning” which consists in the process of developing a compound for use in a different disease. In this work, we found that N-acetil-L-cysteine (a common mucolitic drug with anti-oxidant properties) protects against neuroinflammation and neuronal death. Thus, these data point out the importance in the development of this strategy to slow down the progression of the neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease.