(Yicai) Feb. 21 -- A Chinese team at Huashan Hospital, an affiliate of Shanghai's Fudan University, has become the world's first to identify FAM171A2 as a novel therapeutic target for treating Parkinson's disease after five years of clinical and basic research.

The team, led by Yu Jintai, deputy head of Huashan Hospital's neurology department, has also found a candidate drug that can slow the progression of Parkinson's based on the new target, according to the research published in prestigious journal Science today.

The research by the team, which also operates under the National Center for Neurological Diseases and the National Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Brain Diseases, is an innovative approach for early intervention in Parkinson's and delaying the disease's progress.

According to previous studies, the pathological alpha-synuclein is a key pathogenic protein in Parkinson's disease. The latest research identified FAM171A2 as the crucial receptor mediating the transmission of pathological alpha-synuclein, making it a "zero-to-one" breakthrough.

Yu's team has identified Bemcentinib as a promising candidate from high-throughput screening of over 7,000 drugs. Through experiments, it was found that this small molecule could effectively hinder the binding of FAM171A2 protein and pathological alpha-synuclein and suppress the dopaminergic neuron uptake of pathogenic protein fibrils.

The team has applied for an international patent for treating Parkinson's disease by targeting FAM171A2, with plans to carry out preclinical research and development work over the next few years. It hopes to launch the world's first innovative treatment that can effectively block the progression of Parkinson's disease.

The process from screening candidate drugs to the final development is still long, Yu told Yicai.

Parkinson's is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's and seriously affects patients' daily lives, with a high disability and mortality rate. The number of people with the disease may reach 13 million by 2040, with Chinese patients accounting for almost half.

Editor: Martin Kadiev