Leuvense onderzoekers vinden middel
dat Parkinson afremt
Onderzoekers van de afdeling Moleculaire
Geneeskunde van de Katholieke Universiteit Leuven en de afdeling Biochemie van de
K.U.Leuven-campus in Kortrijk hebben een enzym gedetecteerd dat het proces van de ziekte
van Parkinson versnelt.
Link
Beschermingseiwit niet betrokken
bij ontstaan ziekte van Parkinson
De bloed-hersenbarrière is een
beschermende laag rond de hersenen. In deze barrière pompt het eiwit P-glycoproteine
(P-gp) schadelijke stoffen de hersenen uit, naar het bloed. Sommige wetenschappers
vermoedden dat de ziekte van Parkinson ontstaat doordat P-gp minder goed gaat werken.
Promovenda Anna Bartels toont echter aan dat een verminderde functie van P-gp geen rol
speelt in het ontstaan van de ziekte. Verminderde P-gp functie kan wel een rol spelen bij
de voortgang van de ziekte van Parkinson en bij andere vormen van beschadiging van de
hersenen, zoals Alzheimer. Hier moet nog meer onderzoek naar gedaan worden.
Industriële reiniger gelinkt aan
verhoogd risico op Parkinson
Arbeidskrachten die bloot hebben gestaan
aan tricholorethylene (TCE). een chemisch product dat ooit veel gebruikt werd om metaal te
reinigen zoals auto-onderdelen, lopen een hoger risico om de ziekte van Parkinson te
ontwikkelen. Dit blijkt uit een studie die vandaag is uitgegeven. Deze studie zal worden
gepresenteerd op de jaarlijkse "American Academy of Neuroloy's meeting" die voor
de 62e maal plaatsvindt in Toronto, van 10 tot 17 april. "Dit is de eerste keer dat
een op populatie gebaseerde studie bevestigt dat blootstelling aan TCE het risico op de
ziekte van parkinson kan verhogen," aldus auteur van de studie, Samual Goldman, MD,
van het Parkinson's Institue in Sunnyvale, Californië en lid van de American Academy of
Neurology. "TCE was ooit een populair industrieel oplosmiddel, dat gebruikt werd in
stomerijen en om vet van metalen onderdelen te halen, maar vanwege andere
gezondheidsoverwegingen wordt het bijna nergens meer gebruikt."
Link
Vertaling: Inge Hendriks, www.leeffit.nl
Genetische risicofactor ontdekt
voor Parkinson: genvariant
beïnvloedt verwerking vitamine B6
Een internationaal team van artsen en
genetici heeft een nieuwe genetische risicofactor voor de ziekte van Parkinson ontdekt.
Bij de studie waren de volgende instituten betrokken: institute of Human Genetics of
Helmholtz Zentrum München en Technische Universität München, the Neurological Clinic of
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU) en de Mitochondrial Research Group of
Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. ‘Onze studie onthult de interactie
tussen genetische factoren en omgevingsfactoren zoals eetgewoonten bij het ontstaan en het
verloop van de ziekte van Parkinson’, legt Dr. Matthias Elstner uit. Hij is eerste
auteur van de studie en verbonden aan de Neurological Clinic of LMU and Helmholtz Zentrum
München. De genoom-brede studie bevestigt dat de hoeveelheid aanwezige Vitamine B6 en de
verwerking van deze vitamine in het lichaam van invloed zijn op zowel het risico om
Parkinson te ontwikkelen als de therapie-respons (Annals of Neurology, Januari, 2010).
(…) Dr. Holger Prokisch, hoofd van het onderzoeksteam dat mitochondriale ziektes
bestudeert in het Helmholtz Zentrum München en TU München, voegt toe: ‘Hoewel deze
genvariant slechts een kleine factor is in het algehele risico op de ziekte van Parkinson,
kunnen onze bevindingen een bijdrage leveren aan de ontwikkeling van geïndividualiseerde
therapieën.’
Link
Vertaling: Geertje van der Burgh
We roesten toch! Antioxidant
theorie gerevitaliseerd
De theorie dat ouder worden en bijvoorbeeld
de ziekte van Parkinson krijgen samenhangt met roesten van de weefsels, of versterkte
oxidatie is een oeroude in de alternatieve geneeskunde. Reden dat veel
natuurgeneeskundigen allerlei anti-oxidanten voorschrijven. Tot nu toe was er weinig steun
voor bijvoorbeeld hoge doseringen vitamine C, een natuurlijke oxidant. Nu, in het
decembernummer van de Archives of Neurology (2009) een revitalisatie van de
oxidantenhypothese bij de ziekte van Parkinson.
Link
Nieuwe meetmethode helpt bij
implanteren elektrode tegen Parkinson
Wanneer medicijnen niet het gewenste effect
hebben, wordt bij de behandeling van Parkinson ook wel gebruik gemaakt van 'diepe brein
stimulatie'. Hierbij wordt een elektrode in de hersenen van de patiënt geplaatst. Met
behulp van stroomstootjes kunnen de symptomen van de ziekte verminderd worden. Om de
elektrode op de juiste plaats te implanteren, worden symptomen van de ziekte gedurende de
operatie gemeten. Voor symptomen als tremor, fingertapping en diadochokinese bestaan al
objectieve meetmethodes. Voor stijfheid bestond zo'n methode nog niet. Promovenda Linda
Jacobi ontwikkelde er een.
Link
Parkinson in beweging
Wilson Abdo's proefschrift gaat in op de
grote diagnostische problemen die artsen ondervinden bij het stellen van de juiste
diagnose wanneer een patiënt zich presenteert met klachten die kunnen passen bij de
ziekte van Parkinson. Naast de ziekte van Parkinson bestaat een breed scala aan
aandoeningen die dezelfde klachten kunnen veroorzaken. Daarom is het voor artsen vaak
moeilijk om een goed onderscheid te maken. Dit onderscheid is echter van groot belang voor
de vervolgstappen (behandeling en het adviseren van de patiënt en diens familie). Uit
onderzoek blijkt dat patiënten vooral klagen over de moeizame diagnostiek in deze vroege
fase. Abdo bespreekt een serie van onderzoeken die artsen kunnen helpen bij het beter en
sneller stellen van de juiste diagnose. Het betreft een breed spectrum van enerzijds
eenvoudige testen die in de spreekkamer kunnen worden verricht, tot anderzijds
geavanceerde biochemische analyses van het hersenvocht. Naar aanleiding van dit
proefschrift heeft Abdo ook een handzaam boekje in zakformaat uitgebracht waarin alle
onderzoeksmogelijkheden worden besproken die in de dagelijkse praktijk ingezet kunnen
worden voor de diagnostiek bij patiënten met Parkinson klachten.
Diagnose Parkinson verbetert met
SPECT en PET scans
De beginstadia van de ziekte van Parkinson
kunnen uitstekend in kaart worden gebracht met zowel SPECT scans als PET scans, blijkt uit
het promotieonderzoek van Silvia Eshuis. De ziekte van Parkinson is een veel voorkomende
neurodegeneratieve aandoening, waarbij te weinig dopamine wordt geproduceerd. Parkinson
leidt tot onder meer traagheid, stijfheid en beven. Het kan lastig zijn om in de vroege
fase de diagnose ziekte van Parkinson correct te stellen. SPECT en PET scans kunnen
hierbij helpen, zo toont Eshuis aan: de twee beeldvormende technieken brengen het
presynaptische dopaminerge systeem ongeveer even nauwkeurig in kaart. Daarmee zijn ze goed
bruikbaar, zowel in de klinische praktijk als bij wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Ook
onderzocht Eshuis de werking van de stof TCH346. In een diermodel blijkt deze stof
hersenschade als gevolg van de ziekte van Parkinson - zowel de dopaminerge schade als de
motore parkinsonsymptomen - te kunnen voorkomen. Helaas werkt het niet bij
Parkinsonpatiënten.
Stem cell research aims to tackle
Parkinson's disease
Scientists in Sweden are developing new ways to grow brain cells in the laboratory that
could one day be used to treat patients with Parkinson's disease, an international
conference of biologists organized by the European Science Foundation was told last week.
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Science's breakthrough of the year
- Cellular reprogramming
In its annual list of the year's top ten scientific breakthroughs, the journal Science has
given top honors to research that produced "made-to-order" cell lines by
reprogramming cells from ill patients. These cell lines, and the techniques for producing
them, offer long-sought tools for understanding -- and hopefully someday curing --
difficult-to-study diseases such as Parkinson's disease and type 1 diabetes.
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Nieuwe aanknopingspunten voor
onderzoek Parkinson en Alzheimer
Veel ziekten van het centrale zenuwstelsel
gaan gepaard met ophoping van eiwit in de hersenen. Door de genen op te sporen die hierbij
betrokken zijn hopen onderzoekers dit proces te kunnen beïnvloeden. Het promotieonderzoek
van Tjakko van Ham lijkt interessante nieuwe aanknopingspunten te bieden voor nader
onderzoek naar verouderingsziekten. Het leverde een model op voor de ziekte van Parkinson.
Ook vond hij in een modelorganisme genen die inzicht geven in de moleculaire oorzaak van
de ziekte. De onderzoeksresultaten zijn voorgelegd aan een internationaal
wetenschappelijk tijdschrift.
Immune cells contribute to the
development of Parkinson's disease
Parkinson disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that impairs movement, balance, speech,
and other functions. It is characterized by the loss of nerves in the brain that produce a
substance known as dopamine. Although the loss of dopamine-containing nerves is
accompanied by accumulation of immune cells known as T cells, these accumulating T cells
were not thought to have a role in the development of disease. However, Stéphane Hunot,
Etienne C. Hirsch, and colleagues, at INSERM UMR 679, France, have now shown that CD4+ T
cells make a significant contribution to the development of disease in a mouse model of
Parkinson disease.
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Toxicity mechanism identified for
Parkinson's disease
Neurologists have observed for decades that Lewy bodies, clumps of aggregated proteins
inside cells, appear in the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease and other
neurodegenerative diseases. The presence of Lewy bodies suggests underlying problems in
protein recycling and waste disposal, leading to the puzzle -ow does disrupting those
processes kill brain cells? One possible answer - by breaking a survival circuit called
MEF2D. Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have discovered that MEF2D is
sensitive to the main component of Lewy bodies, a protein called alpha-synuclein. In cell
cultures and animal models of Parkinson's, an accumulation of alpha-synuclein interferes
with the cell's recycling of MEF2D, leading to cell death. MEF2D is especially abundant in
the brains of people with Parkinson's, the researchers found.
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Parkinson’s Disease and the
Environment
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. People
with PD, their families, scientists, health care providers, and the general public are
increasingly interested in identifying environmental contributors to PD risk. Bronstein et
al. (p. 117) report on a multidisciplinary group of experts who gathered to assess what is
known about the contribution of environmental factors to PD. PD is a complex disorder, and
multiple different pathogenic pathways and mechanisms can ultimately lead to PD. Interplay
among environmental factors and genetic makeup likely influences the risk of developing
PD.
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Deep brain stimulation treatment
for advanced Parkinson's disease patients provides benefits
Patients with advanced Parkinson disease (PD) who received deep brain stimulation
treatment had more improvement in movement skills and quality of life after six months
than patients who received other medical therapy, but also had a higher risk of a serious
adverse events, according to a study in the January 7 issue of JAMA.Deep brain stimulation
is a surgical treatment involving the implantation of electrodes that send electrical
stimulation to specific parts of the brain to reduce involuntary movements and tremors. It
is the surgical intervention of choice when PD motor (movement) complications are
inadequately managed with medications, according to background information in the article.
"However, recent reports highlighting unexpected behavioral effects of stimulation
suggest that deep brain stimulation, while improving motor function, may have other less
desirable consequences," the authors write. They add that there are few randomized
trials comparing treatments, and most studies exclude older patients.
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Omega-3 fatty acids protect against
Parkinson's, study says
Omega-3 fatty acids protect the brain against Parkinson's disease, according to a study by
Université Laval researchers published in the online edition of the FASEB Journal. This
study is the first to demonstrate the protective effect of a diet rich in omega-3 fatty
acids against Parkinson's.
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Green tea may protect brain cells
against Parkinson's disease
Does the consumption of green tea, widely touted to have beneficial effects on health,
also protect brain cells? Authors of a new study being published in the Dec. 15 issue of
Biological Psychiatry share new data that indicates this may be the case.
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For treating advanced Parkinson's,
new research points to serotonin
Studies in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease show that side effects caused by repeated
use of the drug L-DOPA can be minimized by blocking the serotonin 1B receptor. The
finding, reported by researchers at Rockefeller University and the Karolinska Institute,
suggests that targeting the 1B receptor may provide an alternative approach for treating
advanced Parkinson's disease.
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Iron banded worms drying out of
blood could be linked to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's
Researchers at the University of Warwick and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
have discovered that the mechanism that we rely on to transport iron safely through our
blood can collapse into a state which grows long worm-like "fibrils" banded by
lines of iron rust. This process could provide the first insight into how iron gets
deposited in the brain to cause some forms of Parkinson's & Alzheimer's and
Huntington's diseases.
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New insight into what freezes
Parkinson's patients and drives drug addicts
A dopamine imbalance triggers Parkinson's disease and drug addition -- two opposite
diseases. How it worked to do this in the brain had been a mystery. New esearch shows
dopamine strengthens and weakens the two primary circuits in the brain that control our
behavior. This provides new insight into why a flood of dopamine can lead to compulsive,
addictive behavior and too little dopamaine can leave Parkinson's patients frozen and
unable to move.
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Einstein researchers discover
important clue to the cause of Parkinson's disease
A glitch in the mechanism by which cells recycle damaged components may trigger
Parkinson's disease, according to a study by scientists at the Albert Einstein College of
Medicine of Yeshiva University. The research, which appears in the Jan. 2 advance online
issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to new strategies for treating
Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases.
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New research helps explain genetics
of Parkinson's disease
A new study by Narendra et al. suggests that Parkin, the product of the Parkinson's
disease-related gene Park2, prompts neuronal survival by clearing the cell of its damaged
mitochondria. "[This is] an exciting new discovery that links the fields of
mitochondrial quality control and the genetics of Parkinson's disease (PD)," writes
Heidi McBride of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. "…This work
significantly increases our understanding of PD and provides a new framework for the
development of therapeutic interventions." The study, as well as McBride's
commentary, will appear in the December 1, 2008 print issue of the Journal of Cell Biology
(JCB). Both articles will be published online Monday, November 24 (www.jcb.org).
Loss-of-function mutations in the gene Park2, which encodes an E3 ubiquitin ligase
(Parkin), are implicated in half the cases of recessive familial early-onset Parkinson's
disease. Several lines of evidence suggest that Parkin loss is associated with
mitochondrial dysfunction, but exactly how was unknown. To learn more about Parkin's role
in cells, Narendra et al. examined the protein's subcellular location. They found that
Parkin was present in the cytoplasm of most cells, but translocated to mitochondria in
cells that had undergone mitochondrial damage such as membrane depolarization.
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Trichloroethylene is a risk factor
for parkinsonism
A new study found strong evidence that trichloroethylene is a risk factor for
parkinsonism, a group of nervous disorders with symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease.
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Dairy Consumption Increases
Parkinson's Risk in Men
Consumption of dairy products, especially milk, increases a man's risk of contracting
Parkinson's disease, according to a recent study published in the American Journal of
Epidemiology. Previous studies have established a link between Parkinson's -- a
degenerative central nervous system disorder that commonly causes the impairment of motor
skills, including speech -- and the consumption of dairy. However, the mechanism for this
effect is not yet understood.
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Lancet study shows gene therapy for
Parkinson's disease is safe and some patients benefit
A novel gene therapy technique is safe and may be effective at staving off worsening
symptoms of Parkinson's disease, according to the first scientific review of a dozen
patients who have received the treatment over the last three years. The results were
published in the latest issue of Lancet. The patients, half of whom live on Long Island,
are in advanced stages of the illness and were no longer responding to medicines when they
signed on for the experimental therapy. The study was conducted by Andrew Feigin, MD,
director of Neuroscience Experimental Therapeutics at The Feinstein Institute for Medical
Research and his colleagues in collaboration with Parkinson’s scientists at New York
Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. One woman and 11 men
received a surgical infusion of fluid containing a viral vector and genes for a protein
called GAD, glutamic acid decarboxylase. This enzyme is critical in controlling a
neurotransmitter called GABA. In Parkinson’s, GABA is reduced in an area of the brain
called the subthalamic nucleus. This region is working on overdrive in the disease process
and GABA is an inhibitory transmitter and is important in trying to calm this
hyper-reactive circuit. The gene therapy would be used to reduce symptoms and not alter
the underlying disease process. Finding novel therapies are key as many Parkinson’s
patients stop develop complications after prolonged use of traditional medicines.
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High blood levels of urate linked to
lower risk of Parkinson's disease
In a new, large-scale, prospective study exploring the link between levels of urate in the
blood and risk of Parkinson’s disease, researchers from the Harvard School of Public
Health (HSPH) have found that high levels of urate are strongly associated with a reduced
risk of the disease. NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Kinetics
Foundation, Intramural Research Program of the NIH/National Institute of Environmental
Health Science.
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Study identifies novel Parkinson's
disease drug target
Researchers at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease (MGH-MIND) have
identified a potential new drug target for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and
possibly for other degenerative neurological disorders.
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New studies link the environment to
Parkinson's disease
The Parkinson's Institute announced new findings concerning the role of environmental
factors in the developement of Parkinson's disease as part of the Collaborative Centers
for Parkinson's Disease Environmental Research.
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Violent sleep disorder linked to a form
of dementia
Mayo Clinic researchers and a group of international collaborators have discovered a
correlation between an extreme form of sleep disorder and eventual onset of parkinsonism
or dementia. The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Brain.
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A 'traffic light' for neurons means 'go'
for improving brain research
Every thought, feeling and action originates from the electrical signals emitted by
diverse brain cells enmeshed in a tangle of circuits. At this fundamental level,
scientists struggle to explain the mind. Worse yet, they have lacked tools to understand
what's going wrong in patients with ailments such as depression or Parkinson's disease.
New Stanford-led research published in the April 5 issue of Nature describes a technique
to directly control brain cell activity with light. It is a novel means for experimenting
with neural circuits and could eventually lead to therapies for some disorders. "This
accomplishment is a key step toward the important goal of mapping neural circuit dynamics
on a millisecond timescale to see if impairments in these dynamics underlie severe
psychiatric symptoms," said National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Elias A.
Zerhouni. "The work is also a prime example of the highly innovative approaches to
major challenges in biomedical research that we support through the NIH Director's Pioneer
Award program." Karl Deisseroth, an assistant professor of bioengineering and of
psychiatry who led the research group that authored the paper, received the NIH award in
2005. "This research provides a tool that we didn't have before, which is precise
on-or-off control over specific neural cells in living creatures and intact
circuits," says Deisseroth, whose Stanford research group collaborated with
researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, the Johann Wolfgang Goethe
University in Frankfurt and the University of Würzburg in Germany. "This gives us
the power to ask what the causal role of specific cell types is in neural circuit
function."
Knowing the effects that different neurons have could ultimately help researchers figure
out the workings of healthy and unhealthy brain circuits, explains graduate student Feng
Zhang, a lead author of the paper along with Stanford postdoctoral scholar Li-Ping Wang.
If use of the technique can show that altered activity in a particular kind of neuron
underlies symptoms, for example, this insight will allow development of targeted genetic
or pharmaceutical treatments to fix those neurons. Conceivably, direct control of neuronal
activity with light could someday become a therapy in itself.
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Mechanism of nicotine's learning effects
explored
While nicotine is highly addictive, researchers have also shown the drug to enhance
learning and memory -- a property that has launched efforts to develop nicotine-like drugs
to treat cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, schizophrenia and
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
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Implanting dopamine generators in brain
cells obtains improvement in Parkinson's in monkeys
Implanting dopamine generators -- dopaminergics -- in brain cells has produced improvement
in the symptoms in Parkinson's, according to the results of tests carried out with monkeys
by the Navarra University Hospital, led by Dr. María Rosario Luquin Piudo, neurologist at
the Hospital and at the other Navarra University-based medical center, CIMA, the Research
Center for Applied Medicine.
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Emory Participates in Study to Slow
Progression of Parkinson's Disease
Emory University is participating in one of the largest ever Parkinson's disease (PD)
clinical trials to determine if the nutritional supplement creatine can slow the symptom
progression of this disorder. PD is a degenerative disorder of the brain in which patients
develop tremor, slowness of movements and stiffness of muscles. It affects at least one
million people in the U.S. Currently, there are a number of effective treatments to mask
the symptoms but none to slow their progression. Emory is among 51 medical centers in the
U.S. and Canada recruiting the 1,720 participants with early-stage PD required to complete
this study. The double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase III study is the first large
national study following a series of smaller clinical trials sponsored by the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). "The premise for this important research study is
supported by a large body of laboratory data and the promising results of an earlier
smaller clinical study of creatine in Parkinson's disease," says Dr. Jorge Juncos,
primary investigator at Emory University.
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Drugs for Parkinson's disease may ease
stroke-related disability
Scientists have untangled two similar disabilities that often afflict stroke patients, in
the process revealing that one may be treatable with drugs for Parkinson's disease.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis showed that stroke
damage in a brain region known as the putamen is strongly linked to motor neglect, a
condition that makes patients slow to move toward the left side. Like stroke patients with
motor neglect, Parkinson's patients are also slow to initiate responses involving
movement. Scientists attribute this deficit in Parkinson's disease to loss of neurons that
use the neurotransmitter dopamine to regulate activity in the putamen.
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Parkinson's protein protects neurons
from stress induced cell death
Parkinson's disease, also known as shaking palsy, is one of the most frequent diseases of
the nervous system. In a collaborative effort the groups of Dr. Konstanze Winklhofer
(Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich) and Dr. Daniel Krappmann (GSF -- Research Center
for Environment and Health, Neuherberg) have now been able to reveal a novel function for
the Parkin protein.
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Smoking and caffeine may protect against
Parkinson's disease
In families affected by Parkinson's disease, the people who smoked cigarettes and drank a
lot of coffee were less likely to develop the disease, say researchers at Duke University
Medical Center.
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Jefferson Researchers Participating in
Global Study to Extend Effectiveness of Drug for Parkinson’s disease
After Parkinson’s disease patients use the drug levodopa or L-dopa for several years
as a treatment for restoring the cellular communication that controls muscle movement by
replacing lost dopamine, they begin to experience motor complications that include a
shortened response to each dose of L-dopa.
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Brain chemicals may aid treatment of
Parkinson's
Marijuana-like chemicals in the brain may point to a treatment for the debilitating
condition of Parkinson's disease. In a study published in the Feb. 8 issue of Nature,
researchers from the School of Medicine report that endocannabinoids, naturally occurring
chemicals found in the brain that are similar to the active compounds in marijuana and
hashish, helped trigger a dramatic improvement in mice with a condition that mimics
Parkinson's.
"This study points to a potentially new kind of therapy for Parkinson's
disease," said senior author Robert Malenka, MD, PhD, the Nancy Friend Pritzker
Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. "Of course, it is a long, long way
to go before this will be tested in humans, but nonetheless, we have identified a new way
of potentially manipulating the circuits that are malfunctioning in this disease."
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Higher occurrence of Parkinson's linked
to low LDL cholesterol
People with low levels of LDL cholesterol are more likely to have Parkinson's disease than
people with high LDL levels, according to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
researchers. LDL stands for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; low levels of LDL
cholesterol are considered an indicator of good cardiovascular health. Earlier studies
have found intriguing correlations between Parkinson's disease, heart attacks, stroke and
smoking. "People with Parkinson's disease have a lower occurrence of heart attack and
stroke than people who do not have the disease," said Dr. Xuemei Huang, medical
director of the Movement Disorder Clinic at UNC Hospitals and an assistant professor of
neurology in the UNC School of Medicine. "Parkinson's patients are also more likely
to carry the gene APOE-2, which is linked with lower LDL cholesterol." And for more
than a decade, researchers have known that smoking, which increases a person's risk for
cardiovascular disease, is also associated with a decreased risk of Parkinson's disease.
These findings led Huang to examine whether higher LDL cholesterol might be
associated with a decreased occurrence for Parkinson's disease, and vice versa. "If
my hypothesis was correct," she said, "lower LDL-C, something that is linked to
healthy hearts, would be associated with a higher occurrence of Parkinson's."
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Health care system for aging nerve cells
Uncontrolled neuronal death in the brain often gives rise to neurodegenerative illnesses
like Parkinson or Alzheimer disease. Whether or not neurons have a long and healthy life
is, apart from other factors, determined by the presence of neurotrophic factors.
Scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology have now provided unambiguous proof
that the presence of the neurotrophic factor GDNF and its receptor Ret are essential for
the survival of neurons in a specific brain region.
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Creatine Could Slow Parkinson's Disease
Whether a supplement used by athletes to boost energy levels and build muscle can slow
progression of Parkinson’s disease is the focus of a North American study. Creatine,
under study for a number of neurological and neuromuscular diseases such as Lou
Gehrig’s and muscular dystrophy, may help Parkinson’s patients by giving an
energy boost to dying cells, says Dr. Kapil D. Sethi, neurologist and director of the
Movement Disorders Program at the Medical College of Georgia. “We think it may help
cells that are damaged or overworked,” says Dr. Sethi, a site principal investigator
on the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke study. MCG hopes to recruit
45 patients for the study that will enroll 1,720 patients at 51 sites in the United States
and Canada. Mitochondria, the powerhouse for cells, become dysfunctional in the brain,
muscle and platelet cells of many patients with Parkinson’s disease, Dr. Sethi says.
Powerhouse dysfunction is discernible in postmortem brain studies and in muscle biopsies
and measures of platelet activity in the living. “By giving more energy to the cell,
you are giving them a safety margin,” Dr. Sethi says. “If a cell is dying, it
takes another route and that would be surviving.”
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A randomized, double-blind, futility
clinical trial of creatine and minocycline in early Parkinson disease
Both creatine and minocycline should be considered for definitive Phase III trials to
determine if they alter the long term progression of Parkinson disease (PD). Additional
factors must be weighed before selecting agents for Phase III trials, including safety,
tolerability, activity, cost, and availability of these two agents in comparison with
other agents currently in development for PD.
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Parkinson Research Alliance of India
under development by MCG doctor
He hopes India will become the site of some of the first trials of these disease-slowing
strategies, including natural supplements such as coenzyme Q10 and creatine, which appear
to enhance the body's energy production. Other drugs under study seek better ways to
modulate dopamine, a neurotransmitter critical to movement that is depleted in Parkinson's
patients, as well as other neurotransmitters now known to play a role in the disease.
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Sentry enzyme blocks two paths to
Parkinson's disease
The degeneration of brain cells that occurs in Parkinson’s disease may be caused by
either externally provoked cell death or internally initiated suicide when the molecule
that normally prevents these fatal alternatives is missing, according to studies in mouse
models by investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Parkinson’s disease
is a disease in which nerve cells in part of the brain called the substantia nigra die,
resulting in the loss of dopamine, a nerve-signaling molecule that helps control muscle
movement. The absence of dopamine from these cells, called dopaminergic neurons, causes a
loss of muscle control, trembling and lack of coordination. The molecule that prevents
damage to the substantia nigra is an enzyme called GST pi (“pie”). This molecule
stands like a sentry at the crossroads of several biochemical pathways, any one of which
can lead to Parkinson’s disease, the researchers reported in an article in the Feb. 1
early online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The job of the
antioxidant GST pi is to protect the cell from death caused by either environmental toxins
(externally evoked cell death), such as herbicides and pesticides, or a self-destruction
process called apoptosis (cell suicide), triggered by certain stressful conditions in the
cell. If GST pi levels are reduced or this enzyme is overwhelmed by toxins, these nerves
are at increased risk of death. Previous research has shown that the ability of GST pi to
protect cells against toxic molecules is directly linked to the ability of cancer cells
with excessive amounts of this enzyme to reduce the effectiveness of chemotherapy.
The finding that GST pi plays a key role in preventing Parkinson’s disease suggests
that measuring levels of this enzyme might be an effective way to determine individuals at
risk for developing this disease, according to Richard Smeyne, Ph.D., an associate member
of the Department of Developmental Neurobiology at St. Jude. “In the future,
treatments that increase GST pi levels in the substantia nigra might help to prevent or
delay the onset of Parkinson’s disease or reduce its severity,” said Smeyne, the
report’s senior author.
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Eating Cheese can be Dangerous in
Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s is a disease of accelerated aging. Degeneration, aging, and breakdown are
a cascade of events in Parkinson’s. Declining efficiency and function characterize
Parkinson’s. Antiaging is simply any idea that decreases stress. There is no cure for
Parkinson’s, but you can neutralize as many negative effects as possible, as a method
to slow down the progression of the disease. Not eating tyramine-producing foods is one
idea to help decrease the stress of Parkinson’s Disease.
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Early recognition of Parkinson's Disease
Specialists of the brain investigation department of the Scientific Research Institute of
Neurology, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, are developing methods for early
pre-clinical recognition of Parkinson's disease. The method is based on the fact that even
at early stages of the disease, the patients’ head, eye and hand movement parameters
change. Parkinson's disease is one of the most widespread neurodegenerative diseases. It
develops as a result of injuries of 60 to 80 percent of neurons in a single part of the
brain. It is important to find the way to “catch” the disease before neuron
degeneration reaches the critical level, and the patient starts suffering from tremor and
movement disorders.
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Degenerative Changes that Mimic
Parkinson's Linked to Reduced Dopamine Storage
Emory University neuroscientists have discovered what could serve as a model for slowing
the progression of Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative condition that affects more
than 1 million people in the U.S.
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Diabetes Linked to Higher Parkinson's
Risk
People who have type 2 diabetes are more likely to develop Parkinson's disease as they
age, though researchers are uncertain what accounts for the link between the two diseases,
according to a new study being published in the April issue of Diabetes Care.
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Risk of Parkinson's disease increases
with pesticide exposure and head trauma
Exposure to pesticides and traumatic head injury may have a causative role in Parkinson's
disease, according to a study published online ahead of print in the journal Occupational
and Environmental Medicine.
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UCLA Researchers Discover Link Between
Parkinson’s and Narcolepsy
Parkinson's disease is well-known for its progression of motor disorders: stiffness,
slowness, tremors, difficulties walking and talking. Less well known is that Parkinson's
shares other symptoms with narcolepsy, a sleep disorder characterized by sudden and
uncontrollable episodes of deep sleep, severe fatigue and general sleep disorder.
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Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease
Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes, the human version of mad cow
disease and other degenerative diseases are more closely related at the molecular level
than many scientists realized, an international team of chemists and molecular biologists
reported April 29 in the online version of the journal Nature.
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UCLA researchers discover link between
Parkinson's and narcolepsy
UCLA researchers have found that Parkinson's disease patients have severe damage to the
same small group of neurons whose loss causes narcolepsy. The findings suggest a different
clinical course of treatment for people suffering with Parkinson's that may ameliorate
their sleep symptoms.
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