20年内患者数量将翻番，现每年经济负担近千亿元！帕金森病目前仍无特效药

Core Viewpoint - The article highlights the discovery of a new therapeutic target for Parkinson's disease, FAM171A2, and a candidate drug, bemcentinib, developed by a research team led by Professor Yu Jintai from Fudan University. This represents a significant advancement in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, which currently lacks therapies that can slow disease progression [3][5]. Group 1: Research and Development - The research team utilized artificial intelligence for protein structure prediction and virtual screening, successfully identifying bemcentinib from over 7,000 drugs as a candidate for treating Parkinson's disease [5]. - Bemcentinib has been shown to effectively inhibit the interaction between the FAM171A2 protein and pathological alpha-synuclein, which is crucial for the disease's progression [5]. - The ongoing research aims to confirm whether FAM171A2 can serve as a common intervention target for neurodegenerative diseases and establish a new paradigm for identifying new targets driven by big data [5]. Group 2: Disease Prevalence and Economic Impact - In China, there are over 5 million Parkinson's disease patients, accounting for approximately half of the global patient population. The number of patients is expected to double over the next 20 years due to aging [5]. - The incidence of Parkinson's disease among individuals aged 70 and above in China is reported to be between 3% and 5%, with projections indicating that the number of patients could exceed 10.5 million by 2050 [5]. - The economic burden of Parkinson's disease in China is currently nearly 100 billion yuan annually, expected to rise to about 120 billion yuan by 2030 and further increase to 360 billion yuan by 2050 [6].