CLUMPS of the protein which could cause Parkinson’s disease can travel from the gut into the brains of mice - indicating growing evidence the neurological disease could start in the digestive system.
Parkinson's disease: Experts said the proteins which could cause the condition begin in the gut
The findings, discovered by an American research team at were reported at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurological condition affecting the central nervous system.
Lewy bodies are sticky protein clumps that form in brain cells affected by Parkinson's.
Collin Challis of Caltech in California and colleagues injected clumps of synthetic alpha-synuclein, a protein known to accumulate in the brains of people with Parkinson’s, into mice’s stomachs and intestines.
The researchers then tracked the protein's journey in the body.
They found that seven days after the mice were injected, clumps of the protein appeared in the gut. Levels of the protein - instead formed by a naturally occurring version of the synthetic protein and coaxed out by the synthetic protein, peaked at three weeks.
Experts found the clumps had spread to a part of the brain stem containing nerve cells which connect the gut with the brain.
A further 60 days after the injections, the protein accumulated in an area of the brain which makes the chemical messenger dopamine.
These are the nerve cells which die in people with Parkinson’s disease.
People with Parkinson’s disease do not have enough dopamine which functions as a neurotransmitter — a chemical released by neurons (nerve cells) to send signals to other nerve cells.
Parkinson's disease is a neurological condition
Without dopamine, people find their movements become slower and it takes them longer to move.
Sophie Mclachlan, Parkinson's UK Research Communications Officer, said: "We know that many people with Parkinson's experience problems in their digestion – such as constipation – often before movement symptoms appear.
"This research supports previous studies that suggest the first changes in Parkinson's may happen in the gut before spreading to the brain.
"We have much to learn about the origins of Parkinson's.
“If it does really start in the gut, understanding how this protein gets to the brain could be key to finding ways to stop its progression."
Experts found that in the mice, as the alpha-synuclein clumps spread towards the brain, the mice began demonstrating problems with their gut and movement - with the mice producing more stools than usual,
Researchers also revealed mice performed worse on some physical tests.
Alice Chen-Plotkin, a clinician and Parkinson’s researcher at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania said the idea the protein can spread from the gut to the brain is very new.
She said these new results and others have prompted scientists to start looking outside of the brain for the beginning stages of the disease.
This comes after it was revealed genetically modified WORMS help CURE Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/737841/parkinsons-disease-symptoms-neurological-gut-brain-protein
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