A 'low-oxygen pill' steadied mice with Parkinson's — and halted another brain disease in its tracks

Scientists at Mass General Brigham have built a second-generation drug combination that gently lowers oxygen use inside cells — a 'hypoxia pill'. In mice modelling Parkinson's disease it eased symptoms, and in mice modelling Friedreich's ataxia, a rare inherited condition, it stopped the disease progressing further. The animals tolerated daily treatment for over three weeks with no heart side effects. The work, published in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is early — mice, not people — but it opens a genuinely new road.