DEMENTIA IS LINKED TO INSULIN RESISTANCE IN PARKINSON'S DISEASE

24th January 2012 - New research

Journal of Neurological Science [2012] Jan 20. [Epub ahead of print] (Bosco D, Plastino M, Cristiano D, Colica C, Ermio C, De Bartolo M, Mungari P, Fonte G, Consoli D, Consoli A, Fava A.) Dementia has been found to be associated with insulin resistance in Parkinson's Disease. Dementia commonly occurs in Parkinson's Disease when Parkinson's Disease progresses. This is not inevitable because the biochemistry of Parkinson's Disease and Dementia are completely distinct. There is therefore no reason why they should coincide. Their common association has never been fully explained apart from the fact that Dementia and Parkinson's Disease are both far more common with age.

People who have Parkinson's Disease and dementia were assessed for their resistance to insulin. When insulin is produced in order to prevent high blood glucose levels, insulin sometimes does not have affect. This can be due to insulin resistance, which is the inability of insulin to stimulate the insulin receptors. Brain function largely requires glucose in order to function. Nearly two thirds (62%) of people with Parkinson's Disease who had dementia were found to have insulin resistance. 30% of them also had impaired glucose tolerance. These percentages were significantly higher when the disease duration was longer and when the movement disability was worse. So dementia in Parkinson's Disease appears to be affected by the inability to make use of glucose rather than be a direct result of Parkinson's Disease.

THE PREVALENCE OF PAIN IN PARKINSON'S DISEASE

14th January   2012 - New research

Movement Disorders [2012] Jan 9 [Epub ahead of print] (M.P.Broen, M.M.Braaksma, J.Patijn, W.E.Weber)

Pain has been found to occur in over two thirds of people with Parkinson's Disease. Pain has been studied more intensely as a symptom of Parkinson's Disease in recent years. However, studies on the characteristics and prevalence of pain in Parkinson's Disease have given conflicting results, prompting a systematic review of the medical literature. In the relevant studies, the frequency of pain in Parkinson's Disease ranged from 40% to 85% with an average of 67% (just over two thirds of people). Pain in Parkinson's Disease is most frequently located in the legs, with almost a half (46%) of all people with Parkinson's Disease complaining about musculoskeletal pain. The pain fluctuates with on-off periods. A lot of the pain suffered is unrelated to the biochemistry of Parkinson's Disease, and is therefore not due to it. Surprisingly, only just over half (52%) of people with Parkinson's Disease with pain used analgesics (pain killers), most often non-opioids. This means that a lot people with Parkinson's Disease who suffer pain are going without any treatment for it.

MSU Researchers Identify Path To Treat Parkinson's Disease

Monday, January 30, 2012

MSU researchers have demonstrated the possibility of treating Parkinson's disease at its inception by treating the protein that triggers it before the disease can sicken the patient.

A team of researchers led by Basir Ahmad, a postdoctoral researcher at Michigan State University, has shown that slow-wriggling alpha-synuclein proteins are the cause of aggregation, or clumping together, which is the first step of Parkinson's.

The results are published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

While scientists understand how proteins are structured, they do not yet know how they are built, a process known as folding. When errors happen infolding, proteins clump together, form plaques such as those found in Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's and Lou Gehrig's disease, and cause cells to degenerate.

Lisa Lapidus, MSU associate professor of physics and astronomy and co-author of the paper, has dedicated her lab to researching folding.

"There are many, many steps that take place in aggregation, but we've identified the first step," she said. "Finding a method to fight the disease at its first stage, rather than somewhere further down the road,can hopefully increase the success rate in which the disease is treated."

The identification of this critical first step already has the researchers pursuing new ways to attack the disease. Lapidus is currently testing a number of naturally occurring compounds, which could push the rearranging protein out of the danger zone.

"We are now looking for molecules that can alter the protein when it first begins to ‘misfold,' which could eventually lead to the development of a drug that could prevent aggregation before it happens," she said. Yujie Chen, MSU graduate student, was one of the co-authors of the paper.

Source:http://www.wlns.com/story/16536510/msu-researchers-identify-path-to-treat-parkinsons-disease-at-its-inception