The disease, named after a 19th-century English surgeon, geologist and palaeontologist, affects between 120 and 180 people in every 10,000. Symptoms of the “shaking palsy” had been described as far back as the 12th century by the Arab polymath Ahmad Ibn Rushd, better known as Averroes.

Parkinson’s patients show an accumulation in the brain cells of the proteins alpha-synuclein and ubiquitin, whose main function is to signal to the body that cells are ready to be discarded. The enzyme FKBP12, however, can be used in transplant patients to suppress immune reactions to new tissue and, in cases of Parkinson’s disease, can stop the destruction of brain cells by the build-up of alpha-synuclein.

Initial tests in vitro and on mice have shown promising results, but the process is a long way from being applied to humans. The KUL research was published in The Journal of Neuroscience.