Tel Aviv University researchers at the forefront of early detection of Parkinson's disease – Breaking Israel News



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"Do not reject me in old age; when my strength is exhausted, do not give up! Psalms 71: 9 (The Israel Bible ™)

(Photo: Breaking Israel News)

Parkinson's disease – an incurable neurological disorder that causes tremors, stiff muscles and changes in speech and gait – is one of the most frightening conditions for older people. Parkinson's primarily affects dopamine-producing neurons in a specific area of ​​the brain called the black substance.

About 10 million people worldwide suffer from it, and although Parkinson's disease does not directly cause death, complications result. The symptoms usually develop slowly over several years.

As a result, by the time a patient is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, 50% to 80% of these cells in this part of the brain have already died, probably because of the development of toxicity resulting from the aggregation of the brain. alpha-synuclein.

Thus, the sooner the virus is detected, more doctors can propose a treatment that can significantly delay the progression of the disease, which will facilitate the management of Parkinson's disease.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a new method for tracking the early stages of alpha-synuclein aggregation using super-resolution microscopy and advanced badysis. Professor Uri Ashery was the co-author of the study that has just published it in the journal Acta Neuropathologica.

Uri Ashery and Dana Bar-on (courtesy Tel Aviv University)

"Together with our Cambridge University collaborators, who developed a specific mouse model for Parkinson's disease, we were able to detect different stages of aggregation of this protein," said Ashery, also Director of Sagol School of Neuroscience at TAU ​​and George, TAU. S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. "We correlated aggregation with the deteriorated loss of neuronal activity and deficits in the behavior of mice."

When diagnosing Parkinson's disease in a patient, 50 to 80% of the dopaminergic cells in the part of the brain called Subtania Nigra have already died, probably because of the development of toxicity resulting from the aggregation of alpha-synuclein. "We have developed a new method for monitoring the early stages of alpha-synuclein aggregation using super-resolution microscopy and advanced badysis," says Professor Uri Ashery, Ph.D. – Study author and director of Sagol School of Neuroscience of TAU and George of TAU S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. The search will be

"With our colleagues at Cambridge University, who developed a special mouse model for Parkinson's disease, we were able to detect different stages of aggregation of this protein," explains Professor Ashery. "We correlated aggregation with the deteriorated loss of neuronal activity and deficits in the behavior of mice."

"This is extremely important because we can now detect early stages of aggregation of alpha-synuclein and monitor the effects of drugs on this aggregation," added Dr. Dana Bar-On of Sagol School of Neuroscience, co-author of the study. "We hope that this research can be implemented for the early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in patients. We are currently working on implementing minimally invasive methods with Parkinson's patients. "

The researchers, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute of Göttingen and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, have been able to illustrate the effect of a specific drug, anle138b, on this aggregation of proteins and correlate these findings with the normalization of the Parkinson's phenotype in mice, according to Ashery. "This is an important step forward in the world of Parkinson's research," he said.

The researchers hope to expand their research to family members of Parkinson's patients. "By detecting aggregates using minimally invasive methods in relatives of patients with Parkinson's disease, we can perform early detection and intervention as well as the ability to track and treat the disease even before the symptoms begin. not be detected, "he concluded.

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