Parkinson’s disease, a condition that affects about 1% of people over 60 in the U.S., has puzzled scientists for a long time.
There’s no cure yet, and it greatly affects the lives of those who have it, as well as their families and caregivers. But recent research from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine brings new understanding and hope.
The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, focused on a protein that’s been linked to Parkinson’s for a while. The research team, led by Dr. Ted M. Dawson, found that this protein makes cells in the brain create too many other proteins.
This overproduction eventually leads to the death of certain brain cells that are crucial for movement and thinking, which is why people with Parkinson’s have problems like shaking and difficulty walking and remembering things.
Normally, our brains have a protein called alpha-synuclein. But in Parkinson’s, a different, harmful form of this protein appears.
Researchers have known about this bad protein for about 20 years, but they weren’t sure exactly how it caused damage. Dr. Dawson’s team used advanced techniques to study this in mice and cell models that act like human brain cells.
They found out that this harmful protein interacts with 100 other proteins. Many of these are involved in important steps that cells use to make new proteins.
The bad protein seems to mess with a system in the cell that controls how much protein is made. When this system gets thrown off, cells start making too many proteins.
In their experiments with mice, the researchers saw that the harmful protein activated a specific part of the cell, called mTOR, which led to the overproduction of proteins.
It did this by interfering with the normal checks and balances that keep mTOR under control. This finding was key because it showed a new way the disease might be attacking brain cells.
The team then tried treating the mice with a drug called rapamycin, which is known to affect mTOR.
This treatment not only stopped the cells from making too many proteins but also helped with some Parkinson’s-like symptoms in the mice, like movement problems and muscle weakness.
Dr. Dawson says they still need to figure out why making too many proteins is bad for the brain cells.
It could be that the extra proteins block important cell functions, or maybe some specific proteins are toxic when there’s too much of them. They’re planning more research to understand this.
But even with these questions, the study opens up new possibilities for treating Parkinson’s. For example, drugs like rapamycin could be developed to work specifically in the brain, protecting the important brain cells without affecting the rest of the body.
Another option could be targeting the parts of the cell that control protein production.
This research is a big step forward. It gives scientists new ideas about how to stop the damage caused by Parkinson’s and offers hope for better treatments in the future.
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.
The research findings can be found in Science Translational Medicine.
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