Researchers Identify Parkinson’s Disease Link

Researchers ...have found that mitochondrial quality and functional capacity play an important role in Parkinson’s disease.

Patricia Trimmer, Ph.D., associate professor of anatomy and neurobiology and associate director of basic research for the Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Center, and her research team used human cell lines containing mitochondrial DNA from Parkinson’s disease, or PD, patients to understand how mitochondrial dysfunction and Lewy bodies (diagnostic markers found in the brains of deceased individuals who had Parkinson’s disease) are involved in sporadic PD...

The major finding of this study was the discovery that the mitochondrial DNA in cells with Lewy bodies determined if the enriched cells would be healthier, sicker or unchanged, not the Lewy bodies, as the team had hypothesized. The Lewy body-enriched cells with mitochondrial DNA were more functional than cells with lower levels of mitochondrial DNA...

“This finding is an important piece of the puzzle in finding better treatments for Parkinson’s disease,” said Trimmer. “These results support our hypothesis that mitochondrial DNA play an important role in sporadic PD, and the next step will be to figure out what that role is.”

Trimmer and her team plan to further explore the role of mitochondrial DNA in cell function and its impacts on PD.

This study was published in the Journal of Molecular Neurodegeneration and can be read online: http://www.molecularneurodegeneratio...content/8/1/6#.

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