[VanShuyten]

“ What this article leaves out is that Parkinson’s disease is an autoimmune disease.”

There’s no reason to believe Parkinson’s is an auto-immune disease. There is no build up of antibodies or immune cells in the area of the brain affected.

It’s more likely a defect in dopamine production that creates a toxic form of dopamine, the same chemical that these researchers used to give those mice Parkinson’s. What triggers that defective production is unknown. The cause doesn’t seem to be communicable or genetic, although some cases seem to be linked to a childhood flu.

[PA Engineer]

You are correct it is not an autoimmune disease, however it has more to do with the failure of reactive oxygen species scavengers (ROS) in primarily the globus pallidus with lipid peroxidation. Lipid peroxidation leading to specific cell death by ferroptosis. Failure of proper iron handling in lysosomes by autophagy is one common denominator for neurodegeneration.

Replacing neurons will not reverse the disease without correcting the underlying metabolism dysfunctions that led to the disease originally. Neuronal mitochondrial damage should be the primary target for reversal of the disease state.

The research is interesting, however I'm always skeptical of mouse models. Mouse models do not recapitulate human neuronal protein expression.