Mexican scientists demonstrated experimentally,
with adult rats, that mobility can be restored in patients with Parkinson's
disease, the major degenerative disease of the motor system worldwide. The
experiments have not yet been transferred to humans, but are a scientific,
measurable and repeatable basis to fight against this disease
The Mexican study, led by Jorge Aceves Ruiz, an
expert in physiology and emeritus researcher at the Center for Research and
Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV), uses stem
cells to generate dopaminergic nerve
cells and reactivate the production of dopamine in the brain of rats
with symptoms of shaking palsy or Parkinson's disease.
Aceves Ruiz's group has over 35 years of
experience in research on brain physiology, but particularly in a region near
the base in which the basal ganglia are located. In that area,
there are accumulations of nerve cells that make and release neurotransmitters
such as dopamine. The treatment they have designed and tested in the laboratory
uses stem cells that develop into dopamine producers.
"Our treatment has allowed us to recover
these motor impairments, which is associated with the recovery of neurons and
dendritic spines of striatal neurons, which is the first thing that gets
damaged in Parkinson's disease," explained Aceves Ruiz, who belongs to the
permanent Seminar in Science and Technology of Mexico in the medical center
"XXI Century" in Mexico City.
"We found that apparently the treatment by
neurogenesis allows these newly formed neurons to be able to innervate, meaning
that from stem cells present in the tissue itself, cell differentiation towards
dopaminergic phenotype is induced".
After, at least four processes occur before
regaining motor behavior: new dopaminergic cells send their terminals to the
striatum, functionally reinnervate neurons, induce recovery of dendritic
spines and recover the functionality of the cortical input, said the
physiologist graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico
(UNAM).
Stimulating dopamine
Until 35 years ago virtually nothing was known
about the part of the brain called the basal ganglia, which are clusters of
nerve cells at the base of the brain in which different molecules that help
transmit messages between neurons are produced.
Following a period of study at the University
of Cambridge, Aceves Ruiz met his Argentine colleague Claudio Cuello, with whom
he began conducting experiments to see if they could produce dopamine by
electrical stimuli. With trepidation he initiated a research path that has
generated over 73 pioneering papers in pharmaceutical neurology.
"Now we know that, for example, basal
ganglia are organized primarily in two ways: one that facilitates movement and
one that inhibits it, under the action of dopamine," says Aceves.
"We know how the neurotransmitter works,
and this has enabled us to design experiments that allow us to recover motor
activity, we also determined through experiments that dopamine can promote or
inhibit the movement under normal conditions; the problem is knowing when it
promotes and when it stops, and to perform the process it uses different
receptors".
Experiments with adult
rats to give back control of movement continues, but also Mexican
research has opened other fields of study on the action of dopamine
and the consequences of its absence, for example, its effects on motor
hyperactivity syndrome.
"We are the only group that knows, through
our experimental work, what does the D4 receptor do, whcih activation causes
decreased motor activity, because it would be acting in this special kernel
that controls attention and partly motor activity " explained Aceves Ruiz.
Explore further: An important study for Parkinson's disease:
Researchers uncover mechanism regulating dopamine levels in the brain
http://health.einnews.com/article/240626537/6hM6H26DOfVB57oo
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