Parkinson’s disease can make your hands shake and slow down your movements. These are signs most people know.
But did you know that by the time these signs show up, you’ve already lost a lot of a certain type of brain cells?
These cells produce a chemical called dopamine, which helps our brains control our movements. When they die, we get Parkinson’s.
When Do People Get Parkinson’s?
Some people get Parkinson’s early in life, before they turn 50. For them, the worst symptoms can take a long time to show up. Others get the disease later in life, and it can get bad pretty quickly.
But the thing is, doctors can’t tell how the disease will progress until they see symptoms. And by then, a lot of damage has already been done.
New Findings: A Peek into the Future?
Scientists at Rockefeller University have found something that could change this. They’ve found changes in a molecule called RNA both in the blood of living Parkinson’s patients and in the brains of those who have passed away.
And they found that many of these changes are the same in the blood and the brain. These changes are also linked to many of the symptoms of the disease.
These findings could mean that doctors might be able to predict how a person’s disease will progress by looking at their blood.
This could help doctors give treatments that are tailored to each person’s disease stage and symptoms.
And this is not all! The scientists also think that these findings could lead to new ways of treating Parkinson’s.
The Science Behind Parkinson’s
Parkinson’s disease is the second most common brain disease in the world, after Alzheimer’s. It happens when dopamine-producing cells die in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra.
Dopamine doesn’t just make us feel good. It also helps control memory, thinking, and movement.
There’s a part of the brain called the striatum, right above the substantia nigra, that needs dopamine to work. When this part of the brain doesn’t get enough dopamine, we start to see the symptoms of Parkinson’s.
What the Scientists Found in the Brain
The scientists studied the brains of people who had died from Parkinson’s and compared them to brains of people who did not have the disease.
They found that the brains of the Parkinson’s patients had lots of changes in the RNA.
For the first time, they could link different changes in the brain with different symptoms. For example, people with dementia had certain changes in one part of the striatum.
And people who had jerky movements, a side effect of a common Parkinson’s drug, had different changes in another part of the striatum.
They also found differences in the brains of people who got Parkinson’s early and those who got it later.
The younger ones had fewer RNA changes compared to the older ones. This tells us that these two groups are different, not just in symptoms but also in their brains.
What the Scientists Found in the Blood
Next, the scientists looked at RNA in blood samples from almost 500 people with Parkinson’s. They found hundreds of changes in the RNA that were the same as the changes they saw in the brain.
Interestingly, the blood also showed differences between people who got Parkinson’s early and those who got it late, just like the brain did. They still don’t know why this happens, but it’s a very exciting finding!
What Does This All Mean?
The scientists hope that these discoveries could lead to new ways of predicting and treating Parkinson’s. Maybe one day, a simple blood test could tell doctors how a person’s disease will progress.
And maybe these findings could even lead to newtreatments that slow down or stop the disease. It’s a glimpse into a future where we might have more control over this unpredictable disease.
The Unsolved Mysteries
While this groundbreaking study gives us great hope, there are still mysteries to be solved. For instance, why do these changes in the RNA happen in the first place?
Are these changes only reflected in the blood, or is Parkinson’s affecting multiple systems in our body at once?
Further research will be required to fully understand these patterns and how they affect the disease progression.
But one thing is certain – these findings have taken us a giant leap closer to understanding and managing Parkinson’s in a way we’ve never done before.
So for the millions of people affected by Parkinson’s disease worldwide, this study brings a ray of hope – a hope of early prediction, personalized treatment, and potentially, a better quality of life.
If you care about Parkinson’s disease, please read studies that Vitamin B may slow down cognitive decline, and Mediterranean diet could help lower risk of Parkinson’s disease.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies that blueberry supplements may prevent cognitive decline, and results showing Plant-based diets could protect cognitive health from air pollution.
The study was published in Nature Communications. Follow us on Twitter for more articles about this topic.
Copyright © 2023 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
