[Chemar]

not sure if this has already been posted here so sorry if a duplicate

What does the genetics of blood cells have to do with brain cells related to Parkinson's disease? From an unusual collaboration of neurologists and a pharmacologist comes the surprising answer: Genetic mechanisms at play in blood cells also control a gene and protein that cause Parkinson's disease.

The finding, by scientists from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH), Harvard University-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital and the University of Ottawa, may lead to new treatments for the neurological disorder that affects as many as 1.5 million Americans.

The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition the week of July 21-25, 2008.

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) have elevated levels of the protein called alpha-synuclein in their brains. As the protein clumps, or aggregates, the resulting toxicity causes the death of neurons that produce the brain chemical dopamine. Consequently, nerves and muscles that control movement and coordination are destroyed.............

here is the full article for more

http://www.physorg.com/news135878659.html

[paula_w]

This is an extremely encouraging ariticle, as my attention shifts to the blood, as much as the brain. Turning alpha synuclein on and off has to be awesomely significant.

Thanks for posting chemar and carolyn [posted in a different thread just today too].

paula

[lou_lou]

Science : Swimming-pool gas is in the blood
05 October 1996
From New Scientist
Gary Eastwood


CHLORINE kills bacteria in swimming pools—and also, it seems, in the blood. American biologists say that the gas is an important weapon in the armoury that white blood cells use to fend off invading microorganisms.

When bacteria enter the body, white blood cells called neutrophils use an array of toxic chemicals to kill them, including hydrogen peroxide, a powerful bleaching agent. But hydrogen peroxide can react with other molecules in the blood, and Jay Heinecke and his colleagues at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis realised that these reactions could form chlorine.

Looking for chlorine itself was not feasible, as the gas is so reactive that it would exist only fleetingly. But Heinecke's team devised a system to detect retrospectively whether it had been produced. They cultured neutrophils in the laboratory, then took red blood cells, filled them with an amino acid called tyrosine, and coated them with antibodies and other blood proteins to ensure that they would be attacked by the neutrophils.

The neutrophils soon destroyed and engulfed the tyrosine-filled red blood cells. The researchers then used a mass spectrometer to show that the fluid in which the neutrophils were held contained traces of 3-chlorotyrosine, a chemical marker left behind when chlorine attacks tyrosine (Journal of Clinical Investigation, vol 98, p 1283). "We haven't proven that chlorine kills bacteria in vivo yet," stresses Heinecke. But he is confident that will turn out to be the case.

Unfortunately, the toxic chemicals released by white blood cells can damage the body's own tissue. Heinecke thinks the production of chlorine by neutrophils could be involved in heart disease, cancer, arthritis and stroke.

From issue 2050 of New Scientist magazine, 05 October 1996, page 16