Parkinson’s disease tagged posts

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of North Carolina in the USA have mapped out the cell types behind various brain disorders. The findings are published in Nature Genetics and offer a roadmap for the development of new therapies to target neurological and psychiatric disorders. One interesting finding was that cells from the gut’s nervous system are involved in Parkinson’s disease, indicating that the disease may start there.

The nervous system is composed of hundreds of different cell types with very different functions...

Stem cell study finds malfunctioning brain cells in patients who were diagnosed before age 50; researchers test potential new treatment. People who develop Parkinson’s disease before age 50 may have been born with disordered brain cells that went undetected for decades, according to new Cedars-Sinai research. The research points to a drug that potentially might help correct these disease processes.

Parkinson’s occurs when brain neurons that make dopamine, a substance that helps coordinate muscle movement, become impaired or die...

Aggregated alpha-synuclein in the neurons of the appendix.
Credit: Courtesy of Viviane Labrie | Van Andel Research Institute

Appendix acts as a reservoir for disease-associated proteins; appendectomy lowers the risk of developing Parkinson’s. Removing the appendix early in life reduces the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease by 19 to 25%, according to the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind, published today in Science Translational Medicine.

The findings also solidify the role of the gut and immune system in the genesis of the disease, and reveal that the appendix acts as a major reservoir for abnormally folded alpha-synuclein proteins, which are closely linked to Parkinson’s onset and progression.

“Our results point to the appendix as a site of origin for Parkinson’s and pr...

Image: super resolution image of α-synuclein in mitochondria of neuron (left) and single molecule TIRF image of individual α-synuclein aggregates (right). Credit: Mathew Horrocks

Detailed brain cell analysis has helped researchers uncover new mechanisms thought to underlie Parkinson’s disease. The study adds to our growing understanding of the causes of Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, and could influence drug design in the future.

For years, scientists have known that Parkinson’s disease is associated with a build-up of alpha-synuclein protein inside brain cells. But how these protein clumps cause neurons to die was a mystery...