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New results in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease: Curbing the death of neurons

Stiff muscles and shaking hands. Withering sex drive and a depressed mood. Parkinson’s disease plagues approximately one in every hundred people who are over 60 years old in the world.  

By the time a patient sees a doctor for his or her symptoms, significant destruction has already taken place in the midbrain, says Mart Saarma, the Director of the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Helsinki. Two thirds of the dopamine-producing neurons have been damaged or have died.

Saarma and his colleagues were excited to publish uplifting results on the topic in Nature last summer. It may be possible to replace treatments that are based on alleviating Parkinson’s symptoms, and that also lose their effect quickly, with more efficient ones.  Namely, the researchers found out that a protein controlling the growth and differentiation of neurons – a neurotrophic factor called CDNF – protects the “dopamine neurons” from degeneration.

"The best thing about the discovery was that CDNF also helps repair damaged cells,” Saarma says.

An acclaimed sequel to this was published in The Journal of Neuroscience this summer. In their article, Li-ying Yu, Mart Saarma and Urmas Arumäe present the data they have collected on the functioning of this potential “medication”, or the neurotrophic factor. The article concentrates on GDNF, a protein known already before CDNF and investigated in Parkinson's research.

The human body takes care of the normal programmed cell death – apoptosis – by means of several neuron death pathways. To their satisfaction, the researchers discovered that the death of dopamine neurons is controlled by the more appropriate one of two central death pathways: the one in which deprivation does not interfere with the classical apoptosis necessary for the brain.

A good target for deprivation would seem to be the Fas receptor, also known as the death receptor. Blocking this receptor with GDNF prevents the deterioration of the dopamine neurons; in other words, Fas seems like a suitable candidate for pharmaceuticals development.

The Journal of Neuroscience selected the work of the University of Helsinki researchers as its top article of the week it was published, featuring it on the cover.

Text: Virve Pohjanpalo
Photo: Veikko Somerpuro
www.helsinki.fi/digitalcommunications
Translation: AAC Noodi Oy

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