Thanks for posting this Tupelo3.

I'd like to make a couple of points regarding the research paper.

"the discovery reported here extends the hypothesis of Braak et al. that PD begins in the ENS by proposing that PD results from the excessive response of a normal innate immune component of the ENS"

I think they are almost there, but something is still missing. Otherwise every kid who got lots of viral infections of the GI tract would end up getting PD later in life.

"Since it is known from genetic studies that individuals with multiple copies of alpha-syn invariably develop PD, an increase in the expression of alpha-syn is sufficient to cause PD."

I think "invariably" is incorrect - I think the correct figure is less than 100% [1]. Also, there is a basic error of logic in this sentence. Even if 100% is the correct figure, an increase in the expression of alpha-syn is not necessarily sufficient to cause PD. It might also require the presence of, say, a second mutation, which has not yet been identified.

Back to my first point. Perhaps the "something" that is still missing is indeed a genetic mutation, which prevents alpha-syn from being cleared in the usual way.

I acknowledge that it seems unlikely that such a mutation, if it exists, would not have already been identified.


[1] Mutation in the alpha-synuclein gene identified in families with Parkinson’s disease, Polymeropoulos et al., Science. 1997 Jun 27;276(5321):2045-7.