Parkinson’s gut origin given boost

A disputed hypothesis which pinpoints the gut as the origin of Parkinson’s disease has gained support thanks to new research from Lund University. In 2003, German neuropathologist Professor Heiko Braak suggested that Parkinson’s disease (PD) was triggered by a slow, hard-to-detect virus which infects the gastrointestinal tract via eating and drinking, or via the nose or saliva. From here, the virus is able to spread via the vagus nerve to the dorsal motor nucleus and other brain regions. Braak’s hypothesis is supported by the fact that symptoms associated with PD – poor digestion and a disruption of smell – occur early on in the disease, but new research from Professor Jai-Yi Li of Lund University has provided the first direct evidence that the disease has the ability to migrate from the gut to the brain. “We have now been able to prove that the disease process actually can travel from the peripheral nervous system to the central nervous system, in this case from the wall of the gut to the brain,” said Li. PD’s progression is believed to be driven by a misfolded protein – ?-synuclein – that clumps together and infects neighbouring cells. Using a human PD brain lysate containing different forms of ?-synuclein and recombinant ?-synuclein, Li has tracked the process from the gut to the brain in rat models. The work, published in Acta Neuropathologica, demonstrated that ?-synuclein in human PD brain lysate and distinct recombinant ?-synuclein are transported from one cell to another via the vagal nerve to the brain, giving rise to the characteristic movement disorders of PD. “This may give us new therapeutic targets to try to slow or stop the disease at an earlier stage,” said Li, who is research group leader for Neural Plasticity and Repair. Li’s team will now further investigate the mechanisms behind the transport of ?-synuclein in detail. The current work suggests the protein is transferred during nerve cell communication and it is here that his team want to intervene to stop the further spread of the disease. Direct evidence of Parkinson pathology spread from the gastrointestinal tract to the brain in rats Find out more about Li’s work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgo-tDc1800