Parkinson’s disease affects about a million people in the United States. It’s a condition that slowly damages the brain, making everyday activities harder and harder to do.
The main problems people face are shaking, stiffness, and trouble walking. As time goes on, some people also start having problems with their memory, which can develop into dementia.
There’s another similar condition, called Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), which affects memory even more severely and impacts an estimated 1.4 million Americans.
The Breakthrough: Sticky Proteins and ‘Cleaning’ Failure
Researchers from Scripps Research have discovered some important clues about what may cause these diseases. In simple terms, our brain cells produce special types of molecules that can become too reactive.
These overactive molecules mess with the ‘cleaning system’ of the cell, which usually gets rid of bad stuff like harmful protein clumps.
The researchers found that these harmful clumps, made of a protein called alpha-synuclein, can’t be cleared out by the cells in people with Parkinson’s disease and LBD.
Normally, a protein named p62 helps in the cleanup process, but in diseased cells, this helper protein gets changed in a way that makes it useless.
Because the cleaning system is broken, these sticky protein clumps build up inside the cell, which can eventually harm the brain.
The Domino Effect: How Bad Proteins Spread
Here’s where it gets worse. Once these harmful clumps build up in one cell, they can escape and invade other nearby brain cells.
This can make the disease spread in the brain, affecting more and more cells over time. The researchers think that the changed helper protein, p62, could be a key player in making this bad situation even worse.
What’s Next? Possible New Treatments
Understanding this messed-up ‘cleaning system’ could be really important for finding new treatments.
If scientists can figure out how to fix the helper protein p62, they might be able to stop these harmful clumps from building up and spreading.
This could be a big deal for slowing down or even stopping the progress of both Parkinson’s disease and LBD.
Further studies are also looking at the roles of vitamins like E and D in possibly preventing or treating these conditions. So, there’s hope that new treatments might be on the horizon.
In summary, this new study gives us important clues about how these brain diseases develop and get worse. While there’s still a lot to learn, it’s a step closer to better understanding these conditions and how to fight them.
If you care about Parkinson’s disease, please read studies about Vitamin E that may help prevent Parkinson’s disease, and Vitamin D could benefit people with Parkinson’s disease.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about new way to treat Parkinson’s disease, and results showing COVID-19 may be linked to Parkinson’s disease.
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