JCI:Parkinson's disease may have originated in the intestine

Parkinson's disease (Parkinson, s, disease, PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease. Death of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons, reduction of dopamine (DA) secretion and formation of Louis's corpuscles are important pathological features of Parkinson's disease. More recently, scientists have linked this brain disease to the gut. Intestinal microbes, or vagus nerves connecting the stomach and brain, seem to be closely related to Parkinson's disease. But scientists still do not know how the gut environment or bacteria can eventually cause symptoms of Parkinson's disease - tremors, stiffness, and walking disorders. Recently, researchers at the Duke University have discovered a potential new mechanism in endocrine cells in the small intestine of humans and mice. A protein called alpha -synuclein (alpha synuclein) is present in these cells. Alpha -Synuclein is mainly distributed in the presynaptic membrane of nerve cells, and is a protein closely related to the development and progression of Parkinson's disease. Under certain conditions, a -synuclein in the cells of the central nervous system in misfolded Louis body formation, resulting in abnormal aggregation and accumulation, leading to cell damage, is considered to be one of the main causes of dopaminergic neuronal death. In this article in the Journal of of Clinical Investigation journal, a matter of Duke University and his colleagues at the University of California that may interfere with the intestinal alpha -synuclein in enteroendocrine cells, the misfolding. "There is plenty of evidence that before alpha -synuclein misfolding occurs in the brain, intestinal nerve has been found, but rather, the specific misfolding occurred in what is not clear," senior author Rodger Liddle, the study said, "this study is another evidence to support the origin of Parkinson's disease on this assumption the gut."

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