A study from the University of Copenhagen, led by Professor Shohreh Issazadeh-Navikas, has uncovered important new information about Parkinson’s disease, a common neurodegenerative disorder that affects millions of older adults worldwide.
Parkinson’s disease is known for causing movement problems and, over time, can lead to dementia. Despite its widespread impact, the exact causes of Parkinson’s have been largely unknown.
This new research, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, focuses on a key issue within cells that seems to drive the disease’s progression.
The researchers found that a specific cellular pathway, which helps manage mitochondria, the energy-producing parts of cells, gets blocked in people with Parkinson’s. Mitochondria are crucial for providing energy to cells, but they can become damaged.
Normally, cells have a process to clean up and recycle these damaged mitochondria. This process is similar to how the body digests food and eliminates waste. However, in Parkinson’s disease, this cleanup process is disrupted.
When the pathway is blocked, damaged mitochondria accumulate in the cells, leading to a decrease in energy production. This lack of energy causes nerve cells to deteriorate and die, which contributes to the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and often leads to dementia.
The blockage is connected to problems with immune genes. These genes are not only important for fighting off infections but also for regulating energy in nerve cells.
Interestingly, these same pathways are involved in recognizing viruses and bacteria, which is important for fighting infections like COVID-19. In fact, a mutation in a related gene has been linked to severe COVID-19 outcomes.
The researchers analyzed data from four different sources, examining neurons from the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease.
They looked at which genes were active and how these patterns changed, especially in those who also developed dementia. They found that damaged mitochondria lead to the buildup of other harmful proteins in the cells.
One significant finding was the high levels of a protein called PIAS2 in the neurons of Parkinson’s patients compared to healthy individuals of the same age.
This suggests that PIAS2 and the pathways it is involved in might play a critical role not only in typical Parkinson’s disease but also in genetic forms of the disease.
Understanding this blockage in cellular pathways could open up new possibilities for developing treatments that prevent or reverse the progression of Parkinson’s disease and its cognitive effects.
The research team is hopeful that their findings will lead to further studies aimed at counteracting these blockages, offering hope for better therapies in the future.
For those interested in Parkinson’s disease and cognitive health, ongoing research continues to provide new insights into how we might slow or prevent age-related cognitive decline and effectively address neurodegenerative diseases.
If you care about nutrition, please read studies about foods that could improve survival in Parkinson’s disease, and vitamin D supplements strongly reduce cancer death.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies about plant nutrient that could help reduce high blood pressure, and these antioxidants could help reduce dementia risk.
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