Paraquat: the red herring of Parkinson's disease research.

Definitions adapted from the American Heritage Dictionary

Redherring n 1: something that draws attention away from thecentralissue

n 2: a smoked herring having a reddish color (they turnredwhen cured)

Folklore suggests that criminals attemptingto throw off pursuingbloodhounds would rub the fish acrosstheir trail

Definition from Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Herring n 3:an implement for felling mighty trees as suggestedby misguidedknights

After the discovery that 1-methyl 4-phenyl 1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine(MPTP) induced a parkinsonian syndrome in individuals who inadvertentlyinjected the by-product of illicit drug manufacturing (Langstonet al., 1983; Ramachandiran et al., 2007; Richardson et al.,2005