PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Parkinson's disease: Parkin protects from neuronal cell death

2013-03-01
(Press-News.org) Researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich identify a novel signal transduction pathway, which activates the parkin gene and prevents stress-induced neuronal cell death.

Parkinson's disease is the most common movement disorder and the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease. It is characterized by the loss of dopamin-producing neurons in the substantia nigra, a region in the midbrain, which is implicated in motor control. The typical clinical signs include resting tremor, muscle rigidity, slowness of movements, and impaired balance. In about 10% of cases Parkinson's disease is caused by mutations in specific genes, one of them is called parkin.

"Parkinson-associated genes are particularly interesting for researchers, since insights into the function and dysfunction of these genes allow conclusions on the pathomechanisms underlying Parkinson's disease", says Dr. Konstanze Winklhofer of the Adolf Butenandt Institute at the LMU Munich, who is also affiliated with the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE). Winklhofer and her colleagues had previously observed that parkin can protect neurons from cell death under various stress conditions. In the course of this project, it became obvious that a loss of parkin function impairs the activity and integrity of mitochondria, which serve as the cellular power stations. In their latest publication, Winklhofer and coworkers uncovered the molecular mechanism that accounts for parkin's neuroprotective action.

"We discovered a novel signaling pathway that is responsible for the neuroprotective activity of parkin," Winklhofer reports. The central player of this pathway is a protein called NEMO, which is activated by the enzymatic attachment of a linear chain of ubiquitin molecules. This reaction is promoted by parkin, thereby enabling NEMO to activate a signal cascade, which ultimately leads to the expression of a specific set of genes. Winklhofer's team identified one essential gene targeted by this pathway, which turned out to code for the mitochondrial protein OPA1. OPA1 maintains the integrity of mitochondria and prevents stress-induced neuronal cell death.

"These findings suggest that strategies to activate this signal pathway or to enhance the synthesis of OPA1 in cells exposed to stress could be of therapeutic benefit," Winklhofer points out.

The newly identified signal pathway may also be relevant in the context of other neurological conditions that are characterized by the loss of specific neurons. Konstanze Winklhofer and her group are already engaged in further projects designed to determine whether other molecules regulated by this pathway might provide targets for therapeutic interventions.

### END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Living through a tornado does not shake optimism

2013-03-01
March 1, 2013 - Even in the face of a disaster, we remain optimistic about our chances of injury compared to others, according to a new study. Residents of a town struck by a tornado thought their risk of injury from a future tornado was lower than that of peers, both a month and a year after the destructive twister. Such optimism could undermine efforts toward emergency preparedness. After an F-2 tornado struck his town in Iowa, Jerry Suls, a psychologist at the University of Iowa who studies social comparison, turned his attention to risk perception. "I had dinner as ...

CeBIT: IT for operation, care, and translation

CeBIT: IT for operation, care, and translation
2013-03-01
This press release is available in German. The computer is increasingly used to help in complex situations. The latest innovations in this area will be presented by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the FZI Research Center for Information Technology at the CeBIT in early March (hall 9, stand G33). User-friendly systems display all facts to surgeons during operation and simultaneously translate university lectures for foreign students. In addition, smart living environments that support comfort, safety, and care services and software for the relocation of ...

Big data: Searching in large amounts of data quickly and efficiently

Big data: Searching in large amounts of data quickly and efficiently
2013-03-01
The term "big data" is defined as a huge amount of digital information, so big and so complex that normal database technology cannot process it. It is not only scientific institutes like the nuclear research center CERN that often store huge amounts of data ("Big Data"). Companies like Google and Facebook do this as well, and analyze it to make better strategic decisions for their business. How successful such an attempt can be was shown in a New York Times article published last year. It reported on the US-based company "Target" which, by analyzing the buying patterns ...

Volcanic aerosols, not pollutants, tamped down recent Earth warming, says CU-Boulder study

Volcanic aerosols, not pollutants, tamped down recent Earth warming, says CU-Boulder study
2013-03-01
A team led by the University of Colorado Boulder looking for clues about why Earth did not warm as much as scientists expected between 2000 and 2010 now thinks the culprits are hiding in plain sight -- dozens of volcanoes spewing sulfur dioxide. The study results essentially exonerate Asia, including India and China, two countries that are estimated to have increased their industrial sulfur dioxide emissions by about 60 percent from 2000 to 2010 through coal burning, said lead study author Ryan Neely, who led the research as part of his CU-Boulder doctoral thesis. Small ...

Wild pollinators increase crop fruit set regardless of honey bees

Wild pollinators increase crop fruit set regardless of honey bees
2013-03-01
Changes made by humans to the natural landscapes can often compromise ecosystems, which paradoxically are vital for human survival. Pollination of crops by wild insects is one such vulnerable ecosystem service, as wild insects are declining in many agricultural landscapes. The study, recently published in Science, focused on understanding whether the ongoing loss of wild insects impacts crop harvest. For this purpose, the researchers compared fields with abundant and diverse wild insects to those with degraded assemblages of wild insects across 600 fields at 41 crop systems ...

Pregnancy permanently changes foot size

2013-03-01
A new University of Iowa study confirms what many women have long suspected – that pregnancy permanently changes the size and shape of a woman's feet. Flat feet are a common problem for pregnant women. The arch of the foot flattens out, possibly due to the extra weight and increased looseness (laxity) of the joints associated with pregnancy. The new study, published in the March issue of the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, suggests that this loss of arch height is permanent. "I had heard women reporting changes in their shoe size with pregnancy, ...

Malign environmental combination favors schizophrenia

2013-03-01
The interplay between an infection during pregnancy and stress in puberty plays a key role in the development of schizophrenia, as behaviourists from ETH Zurich demonstrate in a mouse model. However, there is no need to panic. Around one per cent of the population suffers from schizophrenia, a serious mental disorder that usually does not develop until adulthood and is incurable. Psychiatrists and neuroscientsist have long suspected that adverse enviromental factors may play an important role in the development of schizophrenia. Prenatal infections such as toxoplasmosis ...

New guidelines for standardizing glucose reporting and optimizing clinical decision making in diabetes

New guidelines for standardizing glucose reporting and optimizing clinical decision making in diabetes
2013-03-01
New Rochelle, NY, March 1, 2013—Most adults and children with type 1 diabetes are not in optimal glycemic control, despite advances in insulin formulations and delivery systems and glucose monitoring approaches. Critical barriers to optimal glycemic control remain. A panel of experts in diabetes management and research met to explore these challenges, and their conclusions and recommendations for how to improve care and optimize clinical decision-making are presented in a white paper in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics (DTT), a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, ...

Mechanisms regulating inflammation associated with type 2 diabetes, cancer identified

2013-03-01
(Boston) – A study led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) has identified epigenetic mechanisms that connect a variety of diseases associated with inflammation. Utilizing molecular analyses of gene expression in macrophages, which are cells largely responsible for inflammation, researchers have shown that inhibiting a defined group of proteins could help decrease the inflammatory response associated with diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer and sepsis. The study, which is published online in the Journal of Immunology, was led by ...

'Where you're treated matters' in terms of cancer survival

2013-03-01
SEATTLE – A study of older patients with advanced head and neck cancers has found that where they were treated significantly influenced their survival. The study, led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and published in the March 1 online edition of Cancer, found that patients who were treated at hospitals that saw a high number of head and neck cancers were 15 percent less likely to die of their disease as compared to patients who were treated at hospitals that saw a relatively low number of such cancers. The study also found that such patients ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

AI can spot which patients need treatment to prevent vision loss in young adults

Half of people stop taking popular weight-loss drug within a year, national study finds

Links between diabetes and depression are similar across Europe, study of over-50s in 18 countries finds

Smoking increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, regardless of its characteristics

Scientists trace origins of now extinct plant population from volcanically active Nishinoshima

AI algorithm based on routine mammogram + age can predict women’s major cardiovascular disease risk

New hurdle seen to prostate screening: primary-care docs

MSU researchers explore how virtual sports aid mental health

Working together, cells extend their senses

Cheese fungi help unlock secrets of evolution

Researchers find brain region that fuels compulsive drinking

Mental health effects of exposure to firearm violence persist long after direct exposure

Research identifies immune response that controls Oropouche infection and prevents neurological damage

University of Cincinnati, Kent State University awarded $3M by NSF to share research resources

Ancient DNA reveals deeply complex Mastodon family and repeated migrations driven by climate change

Measuring the quantum W state

Researchers find a way to use antibodies to direct T cells to kill Cytomegalovirus-infected cells

Engineers create mini microscope for real-time brain imaging

Funding for training and research in biological complexity

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Ahead-of-Print Tip Sheet: September 12, 2025

ISSCR statement on the scientific and therapeutic value of human fetal tissue research

Novel PET tracer detects synaptic changes in spinal cord and brain after spinal cord injury

Wiley advances Knowitall Solutions with new trendfinder application for user-friendly chemometric analysis and additional enhancements to analytical workflows

Benchmark study tracks trends in dog behavior

OpenAI, DeepSeek, and Google vary widely in identifying hate speech

Research spotlight: Study identifies a surprising new treatment target for chronic limb threatening ischemia

Childhood loneliness and cognitive decline and dementia risk in middle-aged and older adults

Parental diseases of despair and suicidal events in their children

Acupuncture for chronic low back pain in older adults

Acupuncture treatment improves disabling effects of chronic low back pain in older adults

[Press-News.org] Parkinson's disease: Parkin protects from neuronal cell death