Published
on October 13, 2014 at 10:14 AM Parkinson's disease may start in the gut
Parkinson's
disease is strongly linked to the degeneration of the brain's movement center.
In the last decade, the question of where the disease begins has led
researchers to a different part of the human anatomy. In 2003, the German
neuropathologist Heiko Braak presented a theory suggesting that the disease
begins in the gut and spreads to the brain. The idea has since, despite vocal
critics, gained a lot of ground. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden now
present the first direct evidence that the disease can actually migrate from
the gut to the brain.
The
so-called Braak's hypothesis proposes that the disease process begins in the
digestive tract and in the brain's center of smell. The theory is supported by
the fact that symptoms associated with digestion and smell occur very early on
in the disease.
Researchers
at Lund University have previously mapped the spread of Parkinson's in the
brain. The disease progression is believed to be driven by a misfolded protein
that clumps together and "infects" neighboring cells. Professor
Jia-Yi Li's research team has now been able to track this process further, from
the gut to the brain in rat models. The experiment shows how the toxic protein,
alpha-synuclein, is transported from one cell to another before ultimately
reaching the brain's movement center, giving rise to the characteristic
movement disorders in Parkinson's disease.
"We
have now been able to prove that the disease process actually can travel from
the peripheral nervous system to the central nervous system, in this case from
the wall of the gut to the brain. In the longer term, this may give us new
therapeutic targets to try to slow or stop the disease at an earlier
stage", says Professor Jia-Yi Li, research group leader for Neural
Plasticity and Repair at Lund University.
The
research team will now carry out further studies in which the mechanisms behind
the transport of the harmful protein will be examined in detail. The current
study suggests that the protein is transferred during nerve cell communication.
It is at this point of interaction that the researchers want to intervene in
order to put a stop to the further spread of the disease.
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