{"id":923,"date":"2020-08-26T09:32:18","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T09:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clinlabint.3wstaging.nl\/new-brainstem-changes-identified-in-parkinsons-disease\/"},"modified":"2021-01-08T11:08:53","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T11:08:53","slug":"new-brainstem-changes-identified-in-parkinsons-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/new-brainstem-changes-identified-in-parkinsons-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"New brainstem changes identified in Parkinson\u2019s disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">A pioneering study has found that patients with Parkinson\u2019s disease have more errors in the mitochondrial DNA within the brainstem, leading to increased cell death in that area.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Experts at Newcastle and Sussex universities also revealed that surviving brain cells in the brainstem have more copies of mitochondrial DNA and this has not been identified before.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">The study\u2019s deeper understanding into Parkinson\u2019s disease suggests a new target for therapies for patients with the debilitating condition.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Researchers say their findings are \u201csurprising\u201d as the results differ from what has been seen in studies of brain regions that harbour other brain cell-types.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Dr Joanna Elson, a mitochondrial geneticist at Newcastle University, said: \u201cOur study is a major step forwards in gaining an enhanced insight into the serious condition.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Research shows that in Parkinson\u2019s disease a brainstem region called the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) develops changes in DNA found in mitochondria &#8211; the batteries of the cell &#8211; as they produce and store energy that cells can use.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">This study looked at cholinergic neurons that are responsible for producing the brain chemical acetylcholine, which is released by cholinergic nerve cells to send signals from one neuron to another.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Death of these cells in the PPN is believed to be the cause of some of the symptoms of Parkinson\u2019s disease, such as problems with attention, walking and posture.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Identifying changes in the mitochondrial DNA in PPN cholinergic neurons has the potential to allow the development of more effective treatments targeted to specific cell-types.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">The PPN is an understudied part of the brain and researchers used post-mortem tissue from the Newcastle Brain Tissue Resource, based at Newcastle University, to isolate single neurons for in-depth analysis.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Dr Ilse Pienaar, a neuroscientist at Sussex University, said: \u201cAt present, treatments are aimed at the whole brain of patient\u2019s with Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cOnly by understanding the complexities of what happens in specific cell-types found in specific areas of the brain during this disease can targeted treatments be produced. <\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cWe believe that not only would cell-specific targeted treatments be more effective, but they would also be associated with fewer side-effects.\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">The PPN was of interest because, in previous studies, patients with Parkinson\u2019s disease displayed lower levels of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in remaining dopaminergic neurons.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">This study showed that mtDNA levels are higher in the surviving cholinergic neurons of the brainstem, but with both cell-types that undergo profound degeneration during Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">The finding identifies how vulnerable cell groups react and respond differently to the accumulation of mitochondrial DNA damage seen in the disease, highlighting the need for cell-specific treatments.<\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\">Newcastle University<link http:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/press\/articles\/latest\/2018\/01\/parkinsonsdiseaseresearch\/ _blank external-link-new-window \"Opens external link in new window\">www.ncl.ac.uk\/press\/articles\/latest\/2018\/01\/parkinsonsdiseaseresearch\/<\/link><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A pioneering study has found that patients with Parkinson\u2019s disease have more errors in the mitochondrial DNA within the brainstem, leading to increased cell death in that area. Experts at Newcastle and Sussex universities also revealed that surviving brain cells in the brainstem have more copies of mitochondrial DNA and this has not been identified [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}