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WASHINGTON – Scientists have discovered a new clue that Parkinson's disease may start not in the brain, but in the intestines – perhaps in the appendix.
People whose appendix had been removed early in life were 19% less likely to contract brain disease causing tremors decades later, researchers said this week.
Why? A glance at surgically removed appendicular tissue shows that this tiny organ, often considered unnecessary, appears to be a storage deposit for an abnormal protein – an organ that, if it enters the brain, becomes a hallmark of Parkinson's disease. .
The big surprise, according to reports published in the journal Science Translational Medicine: Many people could host clusters of this worrying protein in their appendix – young and old, people with healthy brain and those with Parkinson's disease.
But do not look for a surgeon for the moment.
"We are not saying to do an appendectomy," said Viviane Labrie of Michigan's Van Andel Research Institute, a neuroscientist and geneticist who led the research team.
After all, many people who do not have an appendix are still developing Parkinson's disease. And many others feed the protein responsible but never get sick, according to his research.
Doctors and patients have known for a long time that there is a link between the digestive tract and Parkinson's syndrome. Constipation and other gastrointestinal disorders are common years before Parkinson's diagnosis. The new research promises to revitalize work to find out why and to know who is at risk.
"It's an excellent piece of the puzzle. It's a fundamental clue, "said Dr. Allison Willis, a Parkinson's disease specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, who did not participate in the new studies but says his patients routinely ask him questions about the disease. intestinal link.
Parkinson Foundation Chief Scientist James Beck, who was not involved either, acknowledged that there were "many fascinating potential links".
He noted that despite its reputation, the appendix appears to play a role in immunity that could affect intestinal inflammation. The type of bacteria that lives in the gut can also affect Parkinson's disease.
But while it's very common to harbor this protein linked to Parkinson's disease, "what we do not know is what triggers it, which makes things happen," Beck said.
For years, scientists have speculated on what could cause the gut-Parkinson connection. One main theory: maybe a bad "alpha-synuclein" protein can travel from nerve fibers in the gastrointestinal tract to the vagus nerve, which connects the body's main organs to the brain. An abnormal alpha-synuclein is toxic to the brain cells involved in the movement.
People who had had a vague nerve cut as part of a now-discontinued therapy had a reduced risk of Parkinson's. Some earlier, more modest studies have suggested that appendectomies could also be protective – but the results were contradictory.
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