Blocking an immune system enzyme called 15-PGDH (15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase) protects brain cells by curbing the production of reactive oxygen species, the damaging molecules that injure neurons. That finding, from investigators at University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University, and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and earned the 2025 Cozzarelli Prize in Biomedical Sciences.
The work was co-led by Andrew A. Pieper, MD, PhD, who directs the Brain Health Medicines Center at the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals, and Sanford Markowitz, MD, PhD, of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. Their earlier research pointed to 15-PGDH inhibition as a potential treatment approach across several neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury.
The reason this line of research matters comes down to a gap that patients and families know well. Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, affecting more than ten million people worldwide, and the drugs available today manage symptoms without slowing or stopping the loss of neurons that drives the illness. A compound that shields neurons from oxidative damage would target the disease process rather than its outward signs.
The shared mechanism is part of the appeal: if oxidative damage contributes across Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and brain injury, one drug target could be relevant to all three. That said, this remains preclinical science, and the distance between a promising enzyme target and an approved medicine is measured in years of further testing.