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| Dr Andrews said potential medications would work as a preventive option rather than a cure. |
FOOLING a person’s body into thinking they are hungry could protect them from developing Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, new Melbourne research suggests.
A “hunger hormone” released to tell a person they need to seek food has also been found to protect brain cells from degenerating, opening a potential new way of holding off a host of neurodegenerative conditions.
But while cutting the calories a person eats can stimulate the Ghrelin hormone into action, the Monash University researchers believe medication could instead be used to release the hormone and convince the body to protect the brain without having to diet.
Revealing results of animal studies into the process, Assoc Prof Zane Andrews said diabetes drug Metformin, which is already available, has been shown to activate the brain-protective mechanism and could be among a group of medications able to prevent or delay Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
“While we know calorie restriction is important to help keep us healthy, as a race we find it hard to limit the amount of food we consume,” Dr Andrews said.
“This (medication) is bypassing that need to adhere to a strict diet regimen and hopefully still get the same benefits, if we can manage to tweak it for a therapeutic approach.”
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| Potential treatments would work to protect brain cells from degenerating |
Results published in The Journal of Neuroscience reveal that when Ghrelin is released the hormone activates a protein in the brain called AMPK that prevents dopamine cells from degenerating, which is the cause of Parkinson’s disease.
By boosting the Ghrelin production in mice with a condition mimicking human Parkinson’s disease, researchers from Monash’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute were able to greatly reduce the symptoms than in those without the hunger hormone.
Assoc Prof Andrews believes Ghrelin works by serving a primitive function of stimulating the brain to remember how to find food — in the same way physical activity has been shown to hold off neurodegenerative conditions by exercising the mind.
“What we think has occurred is that our brains have slightly evolved to be better under those slightly hungry conditions,” Dr Andrews said.
“Ghrelin is the key hormone that we think is giving this signal of hunger to the brain, and the brain is adapting to that.”
While the Monash research has opened the potential for a range of new drug options to be investigated, it is less clear who would most benefit from them because they would work best as a preventive option before symptoms occurred.
“I don’t think it would cause you to never have Parkinson’s, what it would do is keep the brain healthier in order to delay the onset of a neurological condition,” Dr Andrews said.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/drugs-to-stimulate-ghrelin-hormone-linked-to-hunger-could-protect-against-parkinsons-alzheimers-disease/news-story/7f65a72e5ec746a85fa703334235e520
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