(Press-News.org) SAN ANTONIO (Jan. 7, 2011) — Just 5 percent of Parkinson's disease cases can be explained by genetic mutation, while the rest have no known cause. But a new discovery by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio may begin to explain why the vast majority of Parkinson's patients develop the progressive neurodegenerative disease.
This week in the Journal of Neuroscience, the researchers demystified a process that leads to the death of brain cells – or neurons – in Parkinson's patients. When researchers blocked the process, the neurons survived.
The findings could lead to an effective treatment to slow the progression of Parkinson's disease, rather than simply address symptoms that include tremors, slowed movement, muscle stiffness and impaired balance. Further studies could lead to a diagnostic test that could screen for Parkinson's years before symptoms develop, said Syed Z. Imam, Ph.D., adjunct assistant professor at the UT Health Science Center.
Parkinson's disease, which usually is not diagnosed until age 60 or later, affects an estimated half-million people in the United States.
Dr. Imam joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after the research was conducted. Co-authors are from the Health Science Center's Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies; the South Texas Veterans Health Care System; and the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research in Tübingen, Germany.
The mechanism
After analyzing cells and post-mortem brain tissue from animals and humans, researchers noted that oxidative stress – a known culprit in neuron death – activated a protein called tyrosine kinase c-Abl in the nigra-striatum area of the brain. Neurons in this part of the brain are particularly vulnerable to Parkinson's injury.
Activation of this protein led to changes in another protein called parkin, which is known to be mutated in hereditary Parkinson's. The altered parkin lacked the capacity to break down other proteins, leading to harmful clumps of unprocessed protein in the neuron. The scientists believe this accumulation leads to progressive neuron death, resulting in Parkinson's symptoms that worsen over time.
Implications
"When we blocked tyrosine kinase c-Abl activation, parkin function was preserved and neurons were spared," Dr. Imam said. "We believe these studies provide sound rationale for moving forward with a preclinical trial of tyrosine kinase c-Abl inhibitors, with the goal of developing a potent therapeutic drug for slowing the progression of Parkinson's."
If preclinical trials in animal models of Parkinson's disease yield positive results, the next step would be clinical trials in human patients, Dr. Imam said.
Tyrosine kinase c-Abl inhibitors are approved by the FDA for treating myeloid leukemia and gastrointestinal tumors. This could speed approval of the drug for Parkinson's and its translation from bench research to clinical practice.
"The race is on to understand the mechanism of the 95 percent of Parkinson's cases with no known cause, and our finding certainly is a building block," Dr. Imam said. "We have found a specific signaling mechanism that is only turned on by oxidative stress and is selective only to Parkinson's-affected neurons of the nigra-striatum, which is the area that sends signals for balance to the cerebellum."
INFORMATION:
Acknowledgements
Co-authors from the UT Health Science Center San Antonio are Senlin Li, M.D., senior author; Qing Zhou, Ph.D.; Anthony J. Valente, Ph.D.; Mona C. Bains, Ph.D.; Robert A. Clark, M.D.; and James L. Roberts, Ph.D., whose primary appointment is now at Trinity University in San Antonio. Co-authors represent the School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences as well as the Barshop Institute.
The National Institutes of Health, Michael J. Fox Foundation, American Parkinson's Disease Association, Parkinson's Disease Foundation, San Antonio Area Foundation and Health Science Center Presidential Research Enhancement Fund supported the research.
On Twitter and Web
For current news from the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, please visit our news release website or follow us on Twitter @uthscsa.
About the UT Health Science Center San Antonio
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country's leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. Research and other sponsored program activity totaled a record $259 million in fiscal year 2009. The university's schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced approximately 26,000 graduates. The $744 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways "We make lives better®," visit www.uthscsa.edu.
END
HOUSTON - The interplay between a major tumor-suppressing gene, a truncated chromosome and two sets of microRNAs provides a molecular basis for explaining the less aggressive form of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, an international team of researchers reports today in the Jan. 4 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"Our findings could reveal new mechanisms of resistance to chemotherapy among leukemia patients as this feedback mechanism could help us differentiate between patients with poor or good prognosis," said co-senior author George Adrian Calin, ...
The first drug to treat the underlying disorder instead of the symptoms of Fragile X, the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability, shows some promise according to a new study published in the January 5 issue of Science Translational Medicine. Researchers from Rush University Medical Center helped design the study and are now participating in the larger follow-up clinical trial.
The data from the early trial of 30 Fragile X patients, found the drug, called AFQ056, made by Novartis Pharmaceuticals, helped improve symptoms in some patients. Patients who had ...
A Jackson Laboratory research team led by Professor Patsy Nishina, Ph.D., has identified a mutation in a gene that's essential for correct protein-processing in cells. Defects in protein folding are associated with a variety of abnormalities and diseases.
Cells don't come prefabricated, with pieces plunked down and tacked together like modular homes offloaded from trucks. The structural proteins that give cells shape, tubulin and actin (think beams and girders), are themselves subject to essential processing before they become part of the assembly. Proteins must be folded ...
SAN ANTONIO (Jan. 7, 2010) — In the Old West, camps sent smoke signals across distances to share key developments or strategy. Likewise, two important signaling molecules communicate across nerve cells to regulate electrical and chemical activity, neuroscientists from the UT Health Science Center San Antonio reported today.
The findings in rodent models have implications for potential future treatment of epilepsy, stroke and other problems, the researchers said.
"We now have novel targets for therapeutic intervention for a range of neurological and cardiovascular diseases, ...
Sri-Lankan born Psychologist / Cognitive Neuroscientist Prof. Erantha De Mel received the President's Call to Service Award at a ceremony held in Washington DC recently. This distinguished service award by President Barack Obama was presented to him for his outstanding services to the American community in the fields of Psychology and Psychotherapy.
This lifetime achievement award was established in 2003 after President George W. Bush created the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. It is given annually to individuals who have dedicated over 4,000 ...
Salesforce.com announced that AppBuddy's new application GridBuddy was recognized as one of the top 4 installed applications in the 'Hack into Dreamforce' contest. Awards were given to applications with the highest number of customer AppExchange software installs between 9/20/10 and 11/30/10 leading up to the annual Dreamforce conference.
GridBuddy is a 100% native Force.com application that allows users to edit multiple related Salesforce objects using an Excel-like view. GridBuddy has a clean, simple-to-use interface for users to view one parent object with multiple ...
In recent years, programs geared to women only
have began to take popularity.
From fitness kickboxing classes, boot camps, and women fitness clubs -- women only
programs have taken off like a grand slam in baseball.
Starting on February 7th, 2011, local martial arts and fitness school owner and instructor,
Javier Lozano, Jr. will be teaching a series of 8 Week Women Self-Defense Courses
throughout the year.
These 8 week courses are designed to teach women the basic fundamentals of empty-hand
self-defense by using effective strikes, kicks, and blocks to fend ...
The benefits and risks of IT outsourcing to Latin America will be explored in-depth during a special one-hour webinar coming January 25th at 2 p.m. EST. "The Agile Alternative: What Does Mexico Have that India Doesn't?", hosted by the premiere IT offshoring blog - Nearshore Americas, examines the value proposition of relying on 'nearshore' partners to provide custom application development services. Register today by visiting:
http://www.csvep.com/registration/view.php?id=123
Geared toward IT decision makers and managers responsible for software development, testing ...
To start with, it is important that we clear things up. The oatmeal that will give you health benefits are those made from pure oak flakes. The instant oatmeals will do you more harm than good since they have much sugar in them; not to mention traces of preservatives.
Having oatmeal for breakfast is a good way to pump you full of energy and start the day. Aside from giving you the boost you need, there are tons of benefits of eating oatmeal. This is why it became a favorite household food item.
The first of the obvious benefits of eating oatmeal is it contains fiber, ...
With today's economy and the unique needs of today's work force the face of leadership is changing. Authority driven leadership no longer works and current employee engagement statistics report that only 29% of today's workforce are engaged, reporting to work focused on meeting performance and business outcomes.
Successful companies are focusing on educating leaders on employee engagement and current cutting edge leadership strategies to positively affect the bottom line. January 5th, 2011 Debora McLaughlin, CEO of Open Door Coaching and co-founder of The Real World ...
