Key player' that facilitates Parkinson's disease found

2011-03-04 15:40:00
Doctors are researching a treatment that may help control PD symptoms
Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that PARIS - the protein - facilitates the most common form of Parkinson's disease (PD).



... research has shown that ... parkin protects brain cells by "tagging" certain toxic elements for natural destruction. Mutations in the parkin gene cause rare forms of PD that run in families, but its role remained unclear in sporadic late-onset PD....

Using genetically altered mice as well as human brain tissue, the Hopkins team showed that another protein, PARIS, accumulates when the parkin gene is mutated and its protein degrading ability is blocked. Too much toxic PARIS tamps down the manufacture of a protective protein named PGC-1alpha. The less protection afforded to brain cells by this protein, the more they die and the greater the progression of PD.



The findings the study has been published in Cell. (ANI)

http://www.sify.com/news/key-player-...epEjcfedi.html