(Press-News.org) The chronic neurodegenerative Parkinson's disease affects an increasing number of people. However, scientists still do not know why some people develop Parkinson's disease. Now researchers from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital have taken an important step towards a better understanding of the disease.
New research indicates that Parkinson's disease may begin in the gastrointestinal tract and spread through the vagus nerve to the brain.
"We have conducted a registry study of almost 15,000 patients who have had the vagus nerve in their stomach severed. Between approximately 1970-1995 this procedure was a very common method of ulcer treatment. If it really is correct that Parkinson's starts in the gut and spreads through the vagus nerve, then these vagotomy patients should naturally be protected against developing Parkinson's disease," explains postdoc at Aarhus University Elisabeth Svensson on the hypothesis behind the study.
A hypothesis that turned out to be correct:
"Our study shows that patients who have had the the entire vagus nerve severed were protected against Parkinson's disease. Their risk was halved after 20 years. However, patients who had only had a small part of the vagus nerve severed where not protected. This also fits the hypothesis that the disease process is strongly dependent on a fully or partially intact vagus nerve to be able to reach and affect the brain," she says.
The research project has just been published in the internationally recognised journal Annals of Neurology.
The first clinical examination
The research has presented strong evidence that Parkinson's disease begins in the gastrointestinal tract and spreads via the vagus nerve to the brain. Many patients have also suffered from gastrointestinal symptoms before the Parkinson's diagnosis is made.
"Patients with Parkinson's disease are often constipated many years before they receive the diagnosis, which may be an early marker of the link between neurologic and gastroenterologic pathology related to the vagus nerve ," says Elisabeth Svensson.
Previous hypotheses about the relationship between Parkinson's and the vagus nerve have led to animal studies and cell studies in the field. However, the current study is the first and largest epidemiological study in humans.
The research project is an important piece of the puzzle in terms of the causes of the disease. In the future the researchers expect to be able to use the new knowledge to identify risk factors for Parkinson's disease and thus prevent the disease.
"Now that we have found an association between the vagus nerve and the development of Parkinson's disease, it is important to carry out research into the factors that may trigger this neurological degeneration, so that we can prevent the development of the disease. To be able to do this will naturally be a major breakthrough," says Elisabeth Svensson.
INFORMATION:
Facts
Parkinson's disease is a chronic and neurodegenerative disease which affects approx. 1 out of every 1,000 people.
The first signs of the disease are most often seen between the ages of 50-60.
The researchers carried out a registry study involving 14,883 patients who had undergone a vagotomy.
The research project was supported by the Danish Parkinson's Disease Association and PROCRIN (Program for Clinical Research Infrastructure).
Read the scientific article here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ana.24448/abstract
Since February 2015, aflibercept (trade name Eylea) has been available also for patients with impaired vision due to macular oedema that follows blockage of branch veins of the central retinal vein (branch retinal vein occlusion, BRVO). The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined in a dossier assessment whether this drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy. Such an added benefit cannot be derived from the dossier because it contained no data relevant for the assessment.
Manufacturer considered only the comparison ...
The worldwide spreading of the whooping cough, also known as pertussis, has substantially increased since 2010. Researchers from the Biozentrum, University of Basel, have investigated structure and function of an important membrane protein of the bacterium causing pertussis. They discovered that the protein structure differs from a previously postulated model. Their findings, published in "Nature Communications", provide a basis for new treatment approaches for the infection.
Many tiny protein pores are found in the outer membrane of the pertussis pathogen, the bacterium ...
TORONTO -- Alex C. Spyropoulos, M.D., system medical director of the Anticoagulation and Clinical Thrombosis Services at the North Shore-LIJ Health System is part of the steering committee that will discuss results of the BRIDGE study, a randomized trial on atrial fibrillation June 22 at The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) 2015 Congress. The findings are published simultaneously in the June issue of New England Journal of Medicine.
Atrial fibrillation is an irregular and often rapid heart rate that commonly causes poor blood flow to the body. ...
To find life in the universe, it helps to know what it might look like. If there are organisms on other planets that do not rely wholly on photosynthesis -- as some on Earth do not -- how might those worlds appear from light-years away?
That's among the questions University of Washington doctoral student Edward Schwieterman and astronomer Victoria Meadows of the UW-based, interdisciplinary Virtual Planetary Laboratory sought to answer in research published in May in the journal Astrobiology.
Using computer simulations, the researchers found that if organisms with nonphotosynthetic ...
Teenagers are very familiar with the risks of smoking cigarettes, but are much less sure whether marijuana or e-cigarettes are harmful, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
While adolescents get clear messages from their families, teachers, peers and the media about the harms of smoking cigarettes, they receive conflicting or sparse information about the harms of marijuana and e-cigarettes, the study showed.
The findings will be published online June 23 in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
"Kids were really good at ...
Stanford University researchers studying how the brain controls movement in people with paralysis, related to their diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease, have found that groups of neurons work together, firing in complex rhythms to signal muscles about when and where to move.
"We hope to apply these findings to create prosthetic devices, such as robotic arms, that better understand and respond to a person's thoughts," said Jaimie Henderson, MD, professor of neurosurgery.
A paper describing the study will be published online June 23 in eLife. Henderson, who holds the ...
A review of medical records for almost 200 patients with breast cancer suggests that more selective use of biomarker testing for such patients has the potential to save millions of dollars in health care spending without compromising care, according to Johns Hopkins researchers.
Specifically, waiting to perform these tests until a patient has a full excisional biopsy instead of "reflexively" or automatically testing for them on initial small "core" biopsies could save as much as $117 million, according to a report on the study published in the July issue of The American ...
A global taskforce of 174 scientists from leading research centres across 28 countries studied the link between mixtures of commonly encountered chemicals and the development of cancer. The study selected 85 chemicals not considered carcinogenic to humans and found 50 supported key cancer-related mechanisms at exposures found in the environment today.
Longstanding concerns about the combined and additive effects of everyday chemicals prompted the organisation Getting To Know Cancer led by Lowe Leroy from Halifax Nova Scotia, to put the team together - pitching what is ...
Researchers at University of California, Berkeley have taken inspiration from the cockroach to create a robot that can use its body shape to manoeuvre through a densely cluttered environment.
Fitted with the characteristic rounded shell of the discoid cockroach, the running robot can perform a roll manoeuvre to slip through gaps between grass-like vertical beam obstacles without the need for additional sensors or motors.
It is hoped the robot can inspire the design of future terrestrial robots to use in a wide variety of scenarios, from monitoring the environment to ...
The gut microbe Akkermansia muciniphila may hold the key to better metabolic health and healthier body fat distribution in people who are overweight or obese, reveals a small study published online in the journal Gut.
The microbe seems to be linked to lower levels of fasting blood glucose and fats--key factors involved in the development of diabetes and heart disease--and healthier distribution of body fat, the findings indicate.
In healthy people A. muciniphila makes up around 3-5% of the gut's bacterial ecosystem and is associated with a diet rich in insoluble fibre.
The ...
