A potential Parkinson's vaccine will now be tested in a clinical Phase I trial by an EU-funded consortium. The project targets the protein alpha-Synuclein, which plays a key role in the onset and progression of Parkinson's as well as multiple system atrophy (MSA), an orphan disease. This vaccine has the potential to modify disease progression, rather than only symptomatic improvements available with current treatment strategies. The goal of the current trials, which will be conducted in Vienna and Innsbruck, is to test the safety and tolerability of the vaccine in healthy subjects.

In later patient studies, the efficacy of the vaccine in reducing the alpha-Synuclein concentration in will be evaluated using the innovative and ultra-sensitive quantitative method sFIDA, which was developed by scientists from the Institut für Physikalische Biologie and the ICS-6: Structural Biochemistry at Forschungszentrum Jülich.

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