Parkinson's and Alzheimer's research makes important progress
Parkinson's and Alzheimer's research makes important progress
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Wednesday, 28, Jun 2006 05:40
Scientists in the US have praised new research which has paved the way for greater insights into the earliest stages of neurodegenerative diseases.
The brain disorders, which include Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Lou Gehrig's disease, have been linked to oxidative stress, cell damage caused during metabolism when oxygen in the body assumes more chemically reactive forms.
Although scientists have not previously identified the precise connection between oxidation and neurodegenerative diseases, researchers from the US department of energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and UCLA's David Geffen school of medicine have found that damage is due to a byproduct of oxidisation called nitration.
According to the research, many neurodegenerative diseases leave a biomarker, or 'calling card', known as nitrotyrosine, which is made in the presence of an oxidative molecule called peroxynitrate.
"Our study certainly suggests that the sensitivity of certain proteins to peroxynitrite is an early contributor to neurodegeneration, but other factors may also be involved," said Diana Bigelow, one of the study's authors.
The findings could be significant in that the biomarker could be used to predict the earliest stages of brain impairment. Some scientists are hopeful that if byproducts of disease are detected before symptoms occur then as-yet incurable diseases could potentially be reversed.
Researchers will now explicitly study tissues with neurodegenerative disease to test the findings.