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Tuesday
Parkinsons Linked to Toxins...Scientists find a gene associated with Parkinson’s increases sensitivity to herbicides and pesticides.
Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland have shown that knocking out the function of a recently identified gene that is thought to play a role in Parkinson’s disease leads to a heightened sensitivity to widely used agricultural toxins.
The findings, published in the September 6 issue of the journal Current Biology, show that fruit flies without functional versions of a gene called DJ-1 show “strikingly” increased sensitivity to the herbicide, paraquat, and the insecticide, rotenone.
Parkinson’s is thought to arise through both genetic and environmental risk factors. Thus it is inherited as well as occurs sporadically.
However, the distinctions are somewhat artificial because the environmental risk factors for the common neurodegenerative disorder are likely to work through the same biological pathways as some of the inherited genes implicated in the disease.
“Our findings implicate DJ-1 as an inherited Parkinson’s disease gene whose loss of function leads to selective vulnerability to environmental toxins previously associated with sporadic Parkinson’s disease,” said the paper. “[The results also] underscore the critical impact of exposure to such deleterious agents for onset of disease, depending on genetic susceptibility.”
Scientists have identified several genes linked to Parkinson’s, of which DJ-1 is just one example.
However, the new findings do offer hope because they go some way toward unweaving the interplay between environmental and genetic factors in some people with the disease. That could provide the additional clues necessary to look for new treatments.
“Our findings suggest a potential therapeutic role for the upregulation of those same pathways that become compromised in familial disease,” wrote the researchers.
DJ-1 genes are thought to play a critical role in the response of nerve cells called dopaminergic neurons, to oxidative damage. Many biotech companies are currently developing potential treatments for Parkinson’s.
According to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), an industry lobby organization, two companies—Kyowa Pharmaceutical, based in Princeton, New Jersey, and IVAX in Miami—are in the process of final-stage clinical trials for such treatments[red herring]
The findings, published in the September 6 issue of the journal Current Biology, show that fruit flies without functional versions of a gene called DJ-1 show “strikingly” increased sensitivity to the herbicide, paraquat, and the insecticide, rotenone.
Parkinson’s is thought to arise through both genetic and environmental risk factors. Thus it is inherited as well as occurs sporadically.
However, the distinctions are somewhat artificial because the environmental risk factors for the common neurodegenerative disorder are likely to work through the same biological pathways as some of the inherited genes implicated in the disease.
“Our findings implicate DJ-1 as an inherited Parkinson’s disease gene whose loss of function leads to selective vulnerability to environmental toxins previously associated with sporadic Parkinson’s disease,” said the paper. “[The results also] underscore the critical impact of exposure to such deleterious agents for onset of disease, depending on genetic susceptibility.”
Scientists have identified several genes linked to Parkinson’s, of which DJ-1 is just one example.
However, the new findings do offer hope because they go some way toward unweaving the interplay between environmental and genetic factors in some people with the disease. That could provide the additional clues necessary to look for new treatments.
“Our findings suggest a potential therapeutic role for the upregulation of those same pathways that become compromised in familial disease,” wrote the researchers.
DJ-1 genes are thought to play a critical role in the response of nerve cells called dopaminergic neurons, to oxidative damage. Many biotech companies are currently developing potential treatments for Parkinson’s.
According to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), an industry lobby organization, two companies—Kyowa Pharmaceutical, based in Princeton, New Jersey, and IVAX in Miami—are in the process of final-stage clinical trials for such treatments[red herring]