AbbVie throws more at Alzheimer's and Parkinson's

US drugmaker AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) has teamed up with a UK drug discovery and development company focused on selectively targeting deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs).

The deal with privately-held UK biotech Mission Therapeutics is a collaboration in the research and preclinical development of specified DUB inhibitors for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

There is optimism in Mission’s work in these hard-to-treat conditions because DUBs play an important role in keeping a cell healthy by regulating the degradation of the misfolded, toxic proteins that are believed to cause impaired function and death of nerve cells in the brain.