Study identifies promising drug target to prevent neurodegenerative conditions

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common form of neurodegenerative disease and afflicts more than ten million people worldwide. While current therapies address disease symptoms, they do not prevent the underlying neurodegeneration that drives the disease.

Investigators at University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University, and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center previously identified a new and promising drug to treat neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and traumatic brain injury in a study published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The collaborative study, co-led by Andrew A. Pieper, MD, PhD, and Sanford Markowitz, MD, PhD, and awarded the 2025 Cozzarelli Prize in Biomedical Sciences, showed that inhibition of an enzyme in the immune system, known as 15-PGDH (15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase), was potently neuroprotective by restraining the production of reactive oxygen species that damage the brain.

Dr. Pieper is the Morley-Mather Chair of Neuropsychiatry at University Hospitals, and the Rebecca E. Barchas, MD, DLFAPA, Professor of Translational Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University. He also serves as director of the Brain Health Medicines Center at Harrington Discovery Institute at UH, and psychiatrist and investigator in the Louis Stokes VA Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center.

Dr. Markowitz is the Ingalls Professor of Cancer Genetics and Distinguished University Professor at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and Division of Hematology-Oncology Department of Medicine at Case Western Reserve and UH Seidman Cancer Center.