Breakthrough Study Uncovers Previously Unknown Cause of Parkinson’s Disease : The Hearty Soul

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative condition that affects the nervous system. The symptoms are subtle, growing slowly at first, and include tremors in the hands, feet, or jaw. It can also cause stiffness, affect movement, and cause balance issues. While it is an incurable disease, there are medicines that can help manage it. Recently, scientists discovered a new cause of Parkinson’s disease. Read further to learn more about this incredible breakthrough study.

The New Discovery of the Cause of Parkinson’s Disease

For many decades now, researchers have linked the PINK1 protein to Parkinson’s disease. However, none of the researchers had actually seen the human PINK1 or observed how it attaches to a cell’s damaged mitochondria. Up until now, they weren’t even sure how it is activated. However, Australian researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Parkinson’s Disease Research Centre, recently discovered how the mutation activates. They now hope to learn how to switch it off, as this could potentially help slow down the condition’s progress. Published in the Science journal, the study was the first to reveal the PINK1 protein’s structure.

It also explained how this protein bonds to mitochondria, inhibiting it from functioning properly. It can often take anywhere from years to decades to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. While this condition is typically associated with bodily tremors, there are actually around 40 known different symptoms, including issues with vision, speech, body temperature regulation, and cognitive function. In Great Britain alone, the disease affects approximately 153,000 people. While there is no cure currently available for the condition, there are certain steps that can help manage it, such as physiotherapy, medicine, and surgery.

Brain Cells

In a process that is vital for health maintenance and damage repair, approximately 50 million cells die and are subsequently replaced in our bodies. However, our brain cells are replaced at a much lower rate than other cells. The death of brain cells is among the defining characteristics of Parkinson’s disease. When your mitochondria are damaged, they stop producing energy and instead release toxins into the cell. When you are healthy, these damaged cells are eliminated, a process known as mitophagy. However, when it comes to people who have the PINK1 mutation, this process no longer works properly. This results in toxins accumulating in the cell, which eventually dies.

Since brain cells require a lot of energy, they are especially impacted by this damage. PINK1 has specifically been linked to early-onset Parkinson’s disease, which affects individuals under 50 years of age. PINK1 works in four distinct steps. However, the first two had never been observed before. In the first step, PINK1 senses damage to the mitochondria. It then subsequently attaches to the mitochondria and connects to a protein known as Parkin. This is done so that the damaged mitochondria can be recycled.

Observing How PINK1 Works

According to Dr Sylvie Callegari, the study’s lead author, “This is the first time we’ve seen human PINK1 docked to the surface of damaged mitochondria, and it has uncovered a remarkable array of proteins that act as the docking site”. They also managed to observe how mutations present in Parkinson’s patients affect human PINK1 for the first time. While using PINK1 as a potential drug therapy target has been played with for many years, it is only now that its structure has been seen that this can possibly happen.

The researchers hope that this new knowledge will enable them to create a specific drug that can slow down this disease in individuals with the PINK1 mutation. According to Dr Richard Ellis, “It is a crucial step towards understanding the impact of PINK1 in Parkinson’s disease. These observations may hopefully create new opportunities for developing novel strategies for slowing the progression of Parkinson’s disease.”