Excess calcium in the brain could be a risk factor for the development of Parkinson disease, according to results of a study published in the medical journal Nature Communications.
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease caused by abnormal movement of naturally occurring proteins that bind to other proteins, to form alpha-synuclein amyloid fibrils. These deposits are the biomarkers of the disease.
Calcium implicated in Parkinson’s disease
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have studied using super-resolution microscopy techniques the behavior of alpha-synuclein inside cells. They observed that calcium allowed the interaction between membranous structures inside nerve endings and a protein, alpha-synuclein, associated with Parkinson disease.
“Alpha-synuclein appears almost as a sensor of calcium : in the presence of calcium, it changes its structure and interacts with its environment, which is probably very important for its normal functioning,” explains Dr. Amberley Stephens, author of the study.
“However, the balance of calcium and alpha-synuclein is important in the cell, and when there is too much calcium or too much alpha-synuclein, the balance is broken and this imbalance induces the phenomenon of aggregation leading to Parkinson’s disease “.
The imbalance can be caused by an increase in the level of calcium in the neurons, but there are treatments that can block the excess calcium. A new way in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease?
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