3 things about this research caught my attention (in spite of my poor ability in reading technical papers !) :
a- mitochondria failure has been speculated for a long time to be associated with PD. This was the ration for taking supplements like Creatine (Which, by the way, used by me regularly)
b- this research, discovered the genes reponsible for mitochondria failure.
c- "Medications that activate the responsible gene already have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of other diseases, such as diabetes. This means pharmaceutical companies may be able to develop new drugs for Parkinson's by tweaking already developed drugs rather than by starting from scratch, the researchers said."
Cheers every body
Imad

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39541782...ealth_library/
The brain cells of patients with Parkinson's disease undergo a shutdown of their energy powerhouses, the mitochondria, according to a new study. Because this shutdown probably occurs early in Parkinson's cases, the finding could lead to therapies that stop the disease before too much damage has been done.Researchers identified 10 groups of genes — called gene sets, each carrying out one biological process — associated with Parkinson's disease. Many of these gene sets are involved in helping the mitochondria do their job. Even in people whose autopsies revealed early Parkinson's — who did not have clinical symptoms, but whose brains showed signs of the disease — these gene sets were not expressed properly, meaning the mitochondria in those cells probably weren't working.The loss of working mitochondria, which produce most of the cell's energy, may contribute to the onset of the disease, the researchers said.
All of these gene sets are controlled by a single gene, a "master regulator" called PGC-1alpha that switches the gene sets on or off. This gene could be a target for future therapies to treat or prevent the disease, the researchers said.
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