[ad_1]
A Swiss study questions one of the possible causes of Parkinson's disease. A protein suspected of forming killer fibrils of neurons would not necessarily be involved, according to these researchers.
Described 200 years ago by the British doctor James Parkinson, this neurodegenerative disease that affects six million people worldwide. has still not found a clear explanation of its causes, said Basel University in a statement Friday.
Until now one of the triggers could have been alpha-synuclein proteins, which sometimes form toxic fibrous aggregates deposited on neurons. This is particularly the case in some patients suffering from an inherited form of the disease and whose gene encoding this protein is defective.
A conclusive experiment
The team of Henning Stahlberg, Biozentrum of the Basel University, together with colleagues at the Roche Innovation Center and ETH Zurich, wanted to be clear about it. She has managed to generate in vitro such a fibril and to visualize it at the atomic scale by cryo-electron microscopy.
Her statement: " Our three-dimensional structure shows a fibril that can not be produced with mutated protein in this way "says Pr Stahlberg, quoted in the statement. The genetic mutations in question are rather likely to prevent the formation of such a fibrous structure, according to the researchers.
In summary, according to this work published in the eLife magazine, the defective gene should protect the disease, which yet he does not. It is therefore possible that another form of fibril or another form of the protein is involved in these patients.
Scientists now intend to examine whether other types of aggregates form and elucidate the exact function of the alpha-synuclein. It will also be necessary to determine what the neurons die, according to their conclusions
Receive every morning the essential of the news.
OK
Do not show again ×
[ad_2]
Source link
