UW prof helps find link to Parkinson's cause

The Capital Times — 7/21/2008 5:26 pm

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/297178

A UW-Madison pharmacologist helped discover a connection between genetics of blood cells and brain cells in the cause of Parkinson's disease that could lead to new treatments for the disorder.

Parkinson's, which affects as many as 1.5 million Americans, leads to higher levels of the alpha-synuclein protein in affected patients' brains. The buildup of the protein creates a toxicity that kills dopamine-producing neurons and destroys nerves and muscles that control movement and coordination.

The team -- made up of Emery Bresnick, a professor of pharmacolgy at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and scientists from the Harvard University-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital and the University of Ottawa -- found that genetic mechanisms of blood cells also control a Parkinson's disease-causing gene and protein. Three genes that control the synthesis of a major component of hemoglobin, which allows red blood cells to carry oxygen, closely matched the activity of the alpha-synuclein gene.

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