Treatment for Parkinson’s disease may take a whole new turn after the results of a recent study of alpha-synuclein.
Every year, more than 8,000 people are advertised Parkinson’s disease (According to Inserm). The second neurodegenerative disease, after Alzheimer’s, is generally found in the elderly and affects 1% of people over 65. Recently, researchers have identified one of the main causes of this disease: alpha-synuclein. A promising discovery that will allow significant progress in the search for a cure for the disease.
The protein responsible for the development of Parkinson’s disease has been identified
More than 200,000 people today suffer from Parkinson’s disease. Neurodegenerative disease causes a progressive loss of nerve cells in the brain in patients. Consequently, many symptoms are observed, such as stiffness, tremors or slowness of movement. Through a new study, researchers have successfully identified Alpha-synuclein protein As one of the reasons that play a major role in disease development.
Juliana Fusco, lead author of this study and researcher at St. John’s College, University of Cambridge, said in an interview with Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News “If we want to treat Parkinson’s disease, we first need to understand the function of the alpha-synuclein protein in everyone’s brain. This study constitutes an essential step towards this goal.”
Understand alpha-synuclein a little better
Results published in the journal Nature Communications Thus, it allows us to better understand the onset of disease through this protein. Juliana Fusco explains: “Usually you discover a protein in relation to its function, and then you look at the error when an individual gets sick. In the case of alpha-synuclein, it was identified for its pathological association, but we didn’t know exactly what it was doing in neurons. Our study shows that this protein is It sticks to the inner face of the plasma membrane of the nerve cells, but not to the outer face, which is valuable information. “
As a reminder, alpha-synuclein helps transmit nerve signals in the brain. In people with Parkinson’s disease, its breakdown clumps in patients, effectively killing healthy brain cells. Advances in this new study may allow the development of promising therapies to reverse the harmful effects of this protein when its condition deteriorates.
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