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Parkinson's disease, along with other diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, is one of the most well-known neurodegenerative diseases today. However, its origin and its treatment remain mysterious, since current drugs only allow to control or slightly delay the evolution of the disease. they can not cure him.
We know that there are pathological proteins in the brainbut not where these proteins are produced or how they reach the brain. Now, a new job published in Transformational Medicine Science suggests that this origin could be the appendix, an organ of the intestine that was considered useless until recently, but whose extirpation at an early age would reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease .
According to this new work, the pathological proteins responsible for Parkinson's disease would end up in the intestinal appendix and eventually go to the brain to produce the neurodegenerative disorder characterized by muscle stiffness, slowness of movements and tremors, in addition to memory failures as already suggested by another study in 2015.
More specifically, according to the new study, people whose appendix was removed at an early age would have 19% and 25% less risk Parkinson's disease or at a later age. It should be noted that this would not be the first work that would have linked Parkinson's disease to a potential intestinal origin, other studies suggesting a direct relationship between intestinal bacteria and the disease.
On this occasion, to reach such conclusions, the researchers analyzed two huge databases, one of the 1.6 million Swedes and one of the 849 international patients with this disease. Both included information on possible surgical procedures to remove the appendix.
According to their data, those who had an appendectomy (withdrawal from the appendix) had a 19% less chance of developing this disorderbut only if this operation was performed at an early age, decades before the typical age of the disease. In contrast, in the Parkinson's disease group, those whose appendix had been removed developed the disease up to 3.6 years later on average in individuals who still possessed the disease. vestigial organ.
The findings would suggest, according to Viviane Labrie, a professor of neuroscience at the Van Andel Research Institute in Michigan and lead author of the study, that the appendix might have a key role in the onset of the disease. On the other hand, the habitat of individuals was also compared, detecting that those who lived in rural areas and underwent appendectomy were up to 25% less likely to suffer from Parkinson's disease than those living in urban areas.
These data are striking, as it is known that the disease is more prevalent in rural areas, a fact believed to be related to pesticide exposure, according to Labrie. Even in this case, this risk reduction would not have been reflected in people already genetically predisposed. However, only 10% of Parkinson's cases have a genetic basis.
Why the appendix is the key
In the same way as in Alzheimer's disease, pathological proteins are associated with it, in the case of Parkinson's disease, protein deposits have been detected. "Body to body", which are arranged around the neurons and interfere with their proper functioning, avoiding in this case the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine.
These Lewy bodies are composed of malformed proteins, the alpha-synucleinwhich ones they can also be detected in the appendix. In fact, in the second part of the work, Labrie and her team managed to identify them.
Images of 48 appendices of healthy individuals without Parkinson's, of different ages and even in inflammatory process phases were taken. All have detected alpha-synucleins, the same proteins that have been linked to Parkinson's disease, which would indicate that the same "pathological proteins" in the brain might be something "normal" in the intestines, or in that case. in annex. In turn, these data could indicate that the appendix could harbor a potential source of the disease.
Yet Labrie and her colleagues point out that their work has found only a statistical relationship, but they have not been able to demonstrate a true cause-and-effect relationship between these ancillary proteins and Parkinson's disease as such.
Similarly nor recommend to perform preventive appendectomies the aim being to avoid Parkinson's disease, as this disorder is currently relatively rare (affecting 1% of the world population), the work did not seek to find a preventive treatment as such, but only to explore the potential therapeutic pathways against the disease and the possible origin of the disorder. For now, Labrie and her colleagues will continue to study the molecular basis of the disease.
[Más información: Logran controlar las manifestaciones del párkinson por primera vez]
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