Quote:
Originally Posted by johnt
Do animal's get Parkinson's?
I don't mean: can PD-like symptoms be induced in animals? What I mean is can animals living their lives normally get Parkinson's?
Given that Parkinson's strikes late and relatively slowly in humans, it might only rarely hit animals before they die of other causes. For instance, an animal that never survived beyond 30, say, would, assuming the human age-related incidence rates applied, have a very small chance of having noticeable PD.
Has there been any post-mortem work on the brain's of animals to see if they have any pre-clinical signs of the disease? e.g. neuronal loss in certain areas, lewy bodies, other alpha-synuclein aggregation.
Do animals have alpha-synuclein?
Tag johnt:alpha-synuclein
John
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Good question, John!
To my knowledge, animals do not get PD. It has been noted that it does not occur among domesticated animals ie. pets the exception being cows, goats, sheep,and deer. They get forms of prion disease, which IMO, is the 4 legged version of PD.
Prion disease is caused by misfolded proteins. Scientists do not know what causes it. An intriguing and convincing theory is here by a citizen scientist / farmer Mark Purdey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Purdey
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article...as-3654204.php
Also, interesting to note that PD cannot be replicated in lab animals. An acute loss of dopamine can be induced with some symptoms but the state stabilizes, no degeneration occurs. This says to me the cause of PD is different from the neurodegeneration. This also says how much we need more than animal models of disease for study.
Laura